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Real zero in motion: how Fortescue is electrifying mining
FORTESCUE LTD
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“ Real Zero is about transforming the way we power our assets, move our materials and run our operations, not offsetting emissions but eliminating emissions at source,” Dino says.
Half the excavator fleet will be electric by year-end, with batteryelectric locomotives already on the rails. Founder Andrew Forrest’ s bet is that sunlight, once the capital is spent, is simply cheaper than fuel you must keep buying. Prove the model in the Pilbara, the hardest ground going, and everywhere else is easier.
“ Real Zero means not having to worry about despots, oligarchs, fruitcakes and invaders,” he told the Smart Energy Council summit. Power you generate yourself cannot be embargoed, sanctioned or priced by someone else.
Copper, and the smelter problem The other two energy giants are moving on different fronts. BHP has come at it from the copper side. In Chile’ s Atacama, the driest desert on Earth, it has signed deals with the Chinese firm Sungrow to bolt 195MW of solar and 960MWh of batteries onto Escondida and Spence, keeping the world’ s largest copper mine on 100 % renewable electricity inside a US $ 14.7bn expansion.
The plants arrive from 2029, sized to hold that green supply even as output climbs. The logic is as much defensive as green. Power beside the pit turns the desert sun into insurance against a congested national grid.
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