In Australia, WMC Resources Ltd has done a deal with hot rocks explorer, Geodynamics, in which the geotheraml company will build a 13 mega watt (MW) Kalina cycle power plant development located at Mt Keith nickel mine in Western Australia.

This plant would be the first Australian demonstration of the Kalina cycle power generation system using waste heat from an open cycle gas turbine.

And in Papua New Guinea, Lihir Gold is aiming to see annual power savings of $US15 million after successful commissioning of its new 30 megawatt geothermal power station in Papua New Guinea.

More than 60% of the operation’s power requirements are reportedly now being generated from geothermal energy, and Lihir said the A$66.45 million facility would reduce power costs by about A$20 million a year at its PNG goldmine and processing plant.

Lihir chief executive Neil Swan said the new power station was also good environmentally, as the naturally occurring geothermal steam would otherwise be discharged as waste.

The company had previously constructed a smaller 6MW plant and now hopes to add additional generators to lift capacity to 56MW, which it said should be sufficient to meet all of its energy requirements.

In the US, according to a Bloomberg report, the world's largest gold miner, Newmont Mining, is constructing its own coal-fired power plant in Nevada. This will save the company around $US50 million per year, while copper miner Phelps Dodge is expanding the use of hedging to include fuel used at mines in Chile.

The Bloomberg report said energy was the second biggest expense after labour and makes up 10% of operating costs, with Newmont's energy costs climbing 44% in the past year to around $US130 million.