what I'd expect from here, page-34

I think this is the problem to be solved.
Firstly, would need winter diesel for trucks, diggers, excavators etc. The township gets it so im sure its doable via a ship noting the local township is supposed to be a deepwater port. Additionsl volume likely the consideration.

you can estimate generation load by 250 litres/ mwhr
so 100 MW running for an hour would use 25kl or about one tanker truck. That's 24 trucks a day per 100MW load. This is approximate only. 250Mw for a big concentrator would use perhaps say 60kl per hour.

I'd think a local backup diesel power station up to 20MW for life support makes sense. That is doable. Say 10x off 2mw units. Used only occasionally, this is not a problem.

it's plausible to rail the diesel in and offload to bulk tanks on site, noting rail can also be used to transport the concentrate. Typically 2 tonnes bags of concentrate loaded and hopefully lots of them.

So Rail is possible but need a rail line to site. Actually quite handy for travel to fro as very safe generally.

I would hazard at a guess onsiite diesel generation is just too hard for a large load. If not a rail, then the frequency of trucks becomes too hard. Regardless still need huge bulk storage tanks on site likely equivalentto 7 days supply. For a 250MW concentrator that's a big number.

My gut feel is many domiciles moving away from diesel as not as clean as gas. Permitting might be impossible for a diesel power station for example.

with regards to a power station, depending upon size and concentrator, you'd need significantly more power than the township. Like i said, concentrators i worked on had ball and sag mills at 25MW each or more and then you've everything else like conveyors, heating, crushing, camps, conveyors etc.

hence likely 2 ways:
1. transmission line from another big power station where there is fuel.
2. Build a gas pipeline. Even 300kms is not that big a deal and many such precedents, even further and bigger.

if gas pipeline, then depending on size of concentrator, may need a combination of say 10Mw and 40Mw gas turbines. N-2 Redundancy perhaps.

So I think many possible solutions and no deal breakers. It comes down to cost, size, practicality, opportunity for dual use (eg rail), time to build), permitting.

many mines in Australia built on remote locations so anything is possible. If deposit is big, then none of this will be a deal breaker.

just my thoughts.