Gold Fields set to sell carbon emissions

Enviromine

Publishing Date: 01 Jun 2010 4:35pm GMT
Author: Mining, People and the Environment

Pollution & Waste management

Gold Fields has announced that it will become the first gold producer to sell Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs), the financial securities used to trade carbon emissions.

Gold Fields said it will capture methane gas at its Beatrix gold mine in South Africa, and will sell 1.7 million CERs to European energy trading company Mercuria Energy Trading SA under forward contracts which will run until 2016.

It said the contract was worth around R200 million (US$26 million). Gold Fields will use the funds to finance a number of projects linked to the methane capture.

The first phase, set for completion before the end of this year, comprises the installation of a methane extraction system underground and flares above surface at a cost of about R42 million.

For the second phase, Gold Fields is looking at ways of using the gas to generate electricity, converting the harmful greenhouse gas into a valuable resource. Construction of a power generation plant, with the potential to generate about 5MW of electricity, is scheduled to start in 2011.

Chief executive Nick Holland, said in addition to the financial and environmental benefits, the project should result in a safer working environment eliminating the hazard of underground mine methane.