45
07.13
green mining
The Beatrix methane extraction system indicating
the position of the flaring point and the methane-
powered generating system.
Africa by facilitating the provision of clean, reliable
and cost-effective power. South Africa holds 75 % of
the world’s supply of platinum, a key component of
Ballard’s proton exchange membrane fuel cell prod-
ucts.
Andrew Hinkly, Anglo American Platinum’s Ex-
ecutive Head of Marketing, quoted in the same state-
ment, says: “Anglo’s involvement in fuel cell market
adoption extends beyond the implications for plati-
num utilisation to the potential transformational im-
pact fuel cells could have on the economy in South
Africa. Fuel cell-based product deployments enable
the platinum beneficiation strategy in Africa and cre-
ate jobs in a key growth sector for the economy.”
Godfrey Oliphant, South Africa’s Deputy Minister
of Mineral Resources announced at the conference
that the government would provide investment funds
to support the field trials of the home generator prod-
uct being developed by Amplats and Ballard. “Proj-
ects such as this are key in the development of new
technologies which will stimulate the creation of jobs
for the South African economy.”
Methane usage
Moving on to the use of methane in power genera-
tion, the Sibanye Gold project is the second phase of a
methane capture initiative launched towards the end
of 2006 at Beatrix to reduce the danger of explosions,
cut down greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the
mine’s carbon footprint by flaring the gas rather than
releasing methane to atmosphere.
Beatrix worked with carbon project development
firm Promethium Carbon to design and develop a sys-
tem to mitigate the global warming impacts. A project
design document was approved by the United Na-
tions Framework Convention on Climate Change in
2008 and a carbon credit project was registered un-
der the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto
Protocol in 2011. Methane is an explosive greenhouse
gas with an environment impact 21 times higher than
that of carbon dioxide in terms of global warming and
climate change.
Dirk van Greuning, Environmental Engineering
Manager at Beatrix mine, says the underground meth-
ane emission rate at the mine is 1 600 ℓ/s with the main
drawdown target area being the western boundary of
the south section where the highest rate of methane
emission takes place. A reticulation system was de-
signed and constructed to transport 400 ℓ/s of the gas
3 600 m underground at a depth of 866 m to surface to
a flaring point. Methane at 260 ℓ/s is currently being
drawn to generate electricity. The methane in the un-
derground atmosphere is diluted to below explosive
levels.
“Our first intention with the methane capture proj-
ect was to reduce greenhouse emissions and there-
after to address the power generating issue. With
that progression in mind, we provided space and
constructed the plinth for four generating sets when
the design and construction project for the flaring
point was finalised. When the decision was taken to
proceed with the onsite generation of power, all we
needed to do was to set up a metering column from
the flaring point to the power generation site, adapt
an Eskom substation and place and commission the
generator sets.
“Two gas-powered generating sets rented from Ag-
greko Energy Rental in Midrand were delivered to
site earlier this year. ADS Projects was contracted
to undertake the modifications to the onsite electri-
cal substation with the approval of Eskom in order to
feed power back into the grid.
“Savings of R1,2 million per annum arising from
the power generation project accrue because of the
