St Ives renewable transformation: design and foundation notes for mine engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Gold Fields is building a large hybrid renewable power system at its St Ives gold mine in Western Australia, centred on a utility‑scale solar farm using single‑axis tracking and integrated with on‑site battery storage and existing gas generation. The project is designed to supply a major share of the mine’s load and cut diesel and gas consumption, with the tracking PV array maximising output during peak daytime processing demand. For geotechnical and civil teams, key tasks include foundation design for tracker posts in variable regolith and wind‑governed pile layouts across the flat lakebed terrain.
Technical Brief
- Single-axis trackers require uniform post embedment across the flat lakebed, driving consistent piling depths.
- Flat lacustrine terrain simplifies tracker row alignment but increases exposure to lateral wind loading on frames.
- Integration with existing gas plant demands precise load-following controls to avoid thermal unit cycling fatigue.
- Battery storage sizing must accommodate evening processing peaks without breaching minimum gas generation turndown limits.
- Construction sequencing needs to maintain haul road access to active pits while installing tracker rows and cabling.
- Earthing design over lakebed sediments must manage high soil resistivity and lightning protection for extensive steelwork.
- Civil works include drainage and erosion control around inverter stations to prevent ponding on low-relief surfaces.
Our Take
Gold Fields appears in only a small fraction of the 805 Mining stories in our database, so a dedicated piece on St Ives in Australia signals the company is using this site as a flagship for its decarbonisation narrative.
Among the 1556 Projects/Sustainability-tagged pieces, Australia features frequently in renewable-power integrations at mine sites, which suggests St Ives is operating in a jurisdiction where permitting and grid rules are comparatively supportive of hybrid renewable systems.
For Australian gold operations like St Ives, on-site renewables typically target high diesel or gas power costs rather than just emissions, so any successful deployment here is likely to sharpen Gold Fields’ cost base relative to off-grid peers that remain fully thermal-powered.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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