South African gold mining company Gold Fields has awarded a wind turbine supply contract to Chinese manufacturer Goldwind for a 42MW wind farm to be built at its St Ives gold mine in Western Australia, just south of Kalgoorlie.
Gold Fields, which announced its intention to build a renewable energy project at its St Ives gold mine back in early 2024, has selected Goldwind to design, manufacture, and construct seven wind turbines for the project.
The $296 million St Ives Renewable Energy project is designed to power 73 per cent of the mine’s operations and reduce its carbon emissions by around half by 2030.
In addition to the 42MW wind farm, a 35MW solar farm is already under construction in partnership with local distributed energy operator Pacific Energy and is set to be completed in the first half of 2026.
A 33kV renewable energy hub substation and 132kV transmission line will round out the St Ives project.
Image Credit: Gold Fields
Gold Fields, which operates 10 mines and projects across Australia, Canada, Chile, Ghana, South Africa, and Peru, has set itself a target of reducing its Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 from a 2016 baseline. As part of these decarbonisation efforts, the miner is integrating renewable energy generation at its operations around the globe, with large-scale renewable energy projects already in operation at four out of its nine mines.
By 2030, Gold Fields aims to secure approximately 70 per cent of its electricity from renewable energy sources, and 100 per cent by 2050.
“We’re already benefitting from significant renewable energy generation across our Australian operations including 18MW at Gruyere, 10MW at Granny Smith, and 35MW at Agnew,” said Simon Schmid, Gold Fields principal specialist and project director.
“We are excited to see the project’s contribution to our broader global decarbonisation strategy, which contains a target of 30% net emission reduction by 2030, reinforcing our long-term and growing commitment to sustainability.”
As part of its St Ives Renewable Energy project, Gold Fields is partnering with leading creative consultancy FORM to partner with local school students and emerging artists to create a series of artworks which will adorn the turbines.
“This program fosters collaboration, creativity and connection, and celebrates community by encouraging young artists to share their interpretations of wind as an energy source and what it means to their communities,” Schmid said.
“Their artwork will be showcased across a lot of different applications including on the turbines themselves, 130m high once constructed.”
The seven wind turbines are reportedly already being manufactured and are expected to arrive in Western Australia for transport to the site and construction in August.
