Probably not, although...
I might put in a proposal to build a 200 MW solar farm on some Vacant Crown Land in the Bynoe Harbour region.
Selling on a PPA basis for about A$120/MWh (plus network charges), the Bynoe Solar Energy Hub will be a winner. That's 12c KWh wholesale btw..
By comparison non contested commercial energy users in the NT pay 80c KWh. Thats A$800 MWh.
Thats the highest you would ever pay for electrical energy from the NT Grid.
Contested customers pay way less through negotiation.
How much is CXO budgeting to pay for their diesel energy supply again?
What's that? Oh... they don't publish that $/MWh number? I could not find it, that's for sure.
According to reneweconomy.com
Miners and other off grid users pay a whopping $250-$400/MWh for electricity, and solar PV prices have slumped even further than that assumed in this graph, to well below $100/MWh
https://reneweconomy.com.au/miners-see-50-renewables-as-standard-but-are-aiming-for-100-100/But forget about those greeny, hippy, leftist, journalist scumbags from the new energy media. After all, they aren't vested in the bourse.
In their Renewables For Mining report the greeny, hippy, leftist, financial scumbags at Deloitte says "This compared to an average cost of US$254.5/ MWh for diesel generation"
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/Energy-and-Resources/gx-renewables-in-mining-final-report-for-web.pdf
At best CXO might pay $400 MWh using diesel, but likely the energy will cost a lot more IMHO.
The questions for shareholders should be :
Why wouldn't you go for a regulation priced, gas powered, grid energy supply, when a diesel powered supply is subject to multiple external influences over which you have no control? The gas powered energy supply chain in the NT is robust, regulated, affordable, and efficient (mostly).
Given the large amount of sunny, flat floodplains within the project area...
Why wouldn't you develop technology for rapid solar deployment in these environments?
There is no doubt that deploying massive solar arrays on floodplains has technical, environmental and engineering challenges.
But guess what? Deploying mine waste water disposal facilities on floodplains also present similar engineering challenges.
How is it that the boffins from CXO can easily sort the latter, but can't conquer the former?
And the final questions must be:
Give the technological developments driving 'low cost' and 'low impact' mining innovation globally, why is CXO not a technological innovator?
Why is this company trying to turn diesel into lithium when cheaper, more appropriate technologies exist, and are easily deployed?
Mining operations all across the world are transitioning to low carbon or even zero emissions operations. Why isn't CXO trying to do the same?
When they sprout the myth they are helping the global energy economy with their high emissions, so called "low cost" base product, and yet have no strategy at all to reduce costs using state of the art technology, nor utilise the very same green technology they say they support?
(20min delay)