Hybrid power modelling for Latin American mining

Chile produces approximately 27% of the world's copper. BHP Escondida, the world's largest single copper mine at ~1.2 Mtpa, is transitioning its 700+ MW power demand from fossil fuels to renewables under BHP's climate target of net zero by 2050 and a 30% scope 1+2 emissions reduction by FY2030 from a FY2020 baseline. Codelco — the world's largest copper producer at ~1.7 Mtpa — has committed to a similar trajectory across its Atacama and central zone operations.

Chile's lithium operations — SQM and Albemarle in the Salar de Atacama, with new entrants Codelco (after the 2023 nationalisation framework) and others in development — face the unique combination of extremely high solar resource and extreme water scarcity. Desalination plants powered by renewable energy are a design requirement for new lithium operations; HOMER Pro models the combined power system for mining operations and their associated RO desalination plants.

Peru — Andean copper and silver

Peru is the world's second-largest copper producer. Freeport-McMoRan's Cerro Verde (600,000 tpa capacity), Antamina (a BHP/Glencore joint venture producing copper and zinc), and Anglo American's Quellaveco (300,000 tpa, commenced 2022) are the flagship operations. Quellaveco is notable as one of the first major Peruvian copper projects to include a substantial renewable energy component — a 50 MW solar plant with a PPA for wind generation — from project inception, partly driven by a social licence commitment to minimise local environmental impact.

Peruvian Andean mine sites face different solar and wind resources than the Atacama — lower irradiance, higher variability, and in some locations substantial cloud cover from the Amazon basin weather patterns. HOMER Pro models these Andean resource profiles using multi-year meteorological data to accurately represent the dispatch economics of solar-plus-storage at each site.

Vale's Carajás mining complex in Pará — the world's largest iron ore mine at approximately 200 Mtpa capacity — and its associated Tucuruí hydroelectric supply agreement represent a different model from Atacama: large industrial operations partially powered by existing renewable hydro, with on-site solar-plus-storage adding incremental decarbonisation and resilience. Vale has committed to net zero by 2050 and Scope 1+2 carbon neutrality by 2030.

The Carajás railroad and port infrastructure — also operated by Vale — are large electricity consumers where HOMER Grid models solar-plus-storage behind-the-meter economics for the distribution-connected segments.

Argentina — lithium triangle

Argentina's Puna region — the high-altitude plateau of Jujuy, Salta, and Catamarca provinces — hosts the southern portion of the lithium triangle. Livent (now Arcadium Lithium following the Livent-Allkem merger), Allkem's Olaroz project, and a pipeline of new entrants including Rio Tinto (Rincon), Posco (Sal de Oro), and Lithium Americas (Caucharí-Olaroz) are developing Argentina's lithium reserves. These high-altitude, remote sites depend on diesel generation and have no grid connection — HOMER Pro models the transition from diesel to solar-wind-storage hybrid power as operations scale up.