More than 60% of the operation’s power requirements are reportedly now being generated from geothermal energy, and Lihir said yesterday the $US50 million ($66.45 million) facility would reduce power costs by about $US15 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.
