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Cronimet Mining Power Solutions Provides Innovative Solutions for Companies that Need Access to Affordable Power in Remote Areas
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Rollie Armstrong is a managing director of CRONIMET Mining-Power Solutions in Munich since 2013. Prior to CRM-Power Solutions, Rollie co-founded and served as a director in Solea Capital GmbH, an internationally active PV development and transaction structuring company.
Rollie Armstrong, Director of Cronimet Mining Power Solutions took the time to speak with Metals News about the progress that his company has made in promoting their cutting-edge power solutions that incorporate a hybrid technology of photovoltaic cells and diesel power.
Armstrong said “Going forward we have expanded our presence in the awareness of our company and the application of a hybrid power system.” Because of the cost of the technology, Cronimet has developed a creative way to help companies access the technology. Said Armstrong, “One of the most interesting things we have developed is commodity for energy swap. That is a mineral resource for energy. Because we are integrated into the mining company, many junior mining companies and larger mining companies find it difficult to release liquidity into non-core activities. Though energy is critical it is not considered core.” Cronimet’s solution is to provide the technology in return for a stake in the mine’s products. Said Armstrong, “We will build, own and operate the power plant. We sell electricity to the mining company and in return we will take the mining ore. That is something that is very unique to the market right now.” In fact, Armstrong believes that Cronimet may be the only company offering this type of agreement in the mining industry. Said Armstrong, “The feedback that we are getting is that no one is offering that and no one is capable of offering that. We use our trading arm to enter into an offtake agreement. The transaction is then entered into the company. It is quite a flexible way to deal with mining companies.”
During these offtake agreements, Cronimet has a few targets that they look for in terms of which types of minerals they are interested in trading. Said Armstrong, “We have a handful of key resources that we look at for ore. We look at the PGM’s and tin, tungsten and tantalum. We are also looking at graphite, manganese and other projects. That is the trading that we are involved in. Because of this ore body, we have long term security and we would be willing to look at any mineral resource as long as the scale was there. We can scale up the offtake agreement so that the ore body could be brought to market.”
The company has seen an increase in work and interest in their off-grid power solution from West Africa’s mining regions to Eritrea and throughout the entire SADC region. Said Armstrong, “From Tanzania, Zambia and straight down through to South Africa there is a lot of pressure on mining companies and their managers to reduce operating costs as the price of their mineral commodities remains depressed. The mining companies operating in off-grid environments can’t ignore their power costs. 100% diesel powered mini-grid are a major hit to the bottom line It doesn’t really matter who we talk to throughout Africa, if they don’t have reliably power lines running to their operations, they are interested in what we have to offer.” Armstrong and his team have seen a marked change in attitude toward their hybrid energy solution since the company started last year. Companies, who have heard about Cronimet’s hybrid power solutions, are now seeking out Armstrong to learn more. He said, “This is different from what it was last year. Last year, we had to talk about renewable energy. The idea of providing renewable energy seemed very abstract. This year, you can see that the education on reducing diesel is apparent.”
Armstrong has seen that companies are starting to see how Cronimet’s products can help. Armstrong said, “Renewable power is an option, especially if they are not grid connected. We have spent a lot of time talking to companies that are concentrated in certain areas where we can talk to many of them at one time. We can help them to make their projects bankable or feasible. This is a real opportunity for mining companies.”
Cronimet’s product offers a combination of diesel and photovoltaic power that can be used in a myriad of ways. Said Armstrong, “Hybrid power plants combine a diesel gen set and synchronizes a renewable energy into that power mix. The most obvious renewable source for Africa is photovoltaic cells. We are primarily talking about a PV system.” Using the Cronimet hybrid power solution can help companies see a tangible decrease in their diesel costs, which can positively affect their ability to operate over the long term. Said Armstrong, “Our off-grid power solution allows the company that is using our system to reduce their diesel by 60% during the daytime. During the night, they revert back to the use of their diesel gen set. Over the entire year, it still accounts for a 20-30% diesel reduction, which accounts for a material decrease in operating costs.”
How does this help a company? Armstrong explains, “If you are spending millions of dollars every year on diesel, if you can reduce your diesel bill by 20 to 30 percent, you may reduce your overall operations costs by 5 to 10 percent with one solution. No efficient new type of truck or current crusher on the market or even light bulbs can release those kinds of savings.” Cronimet can also add in energy storage if a company requests it, though the technology is still quite costly. Said Armstrong, “If a client of ours is really looking for an innovative solution, we can engineer a system that includes batteries. The additional capital expenditures and investments into batteries that provide 24 hour base load to reduce all but stand by diesel fuel do not yet reduce the mines’ levelized cost of electricity below that of a Solar PV – diesel hybrid system.. Batteries at this point, for 24 hour operations, are still too expensive. If you are looking at a pure off-grid system, you can do a house or a cabin, but a battery pack for a 24 hour mining operation just isn’t there yet. Energy storage with batteries should be the end game, but it is still more expensive than using diesel. We have to make sure that the PV plant is properly sized. Without batteries or storage, we don’t see the possibility of going past 60-70% PV penetration of the installed genset power I think that right now the message is that other companies are seeing us as the leader in the off-grid power market.”
For more
information:
http://www.crm-ps.com
Contact
CRONIMET Mining-Power Solutions GmbH
Ottobrunner Str. 39
82008 Unterhaching
Munich, Germany
Tel:
+49 (0) 89 - 919 290 17-0
Fax: +49 (0) 89 - 919 290 17-9
info@crm-ps.com
www.crm-ps.com
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