Modern Mining April 2024

Left: Integrating renewable energy and sustainable practices into mining operations is crucial to support a progressive future for the sector. Right: Young professionals bring a wave of digital expertise, driving a new era of smart mining.

operations and help them find suitable solutions. According to Terzova, Shell offers technical expertise to global, regional and local mining operations. “Our experts work closely with min ing professionals to identify efficiency improvements and estimate the potential commercial savings from them. We offer tailor-made solutions for each operation using our tried and tested site assessment programme. Moreover, as we monitor the performance of the equipment and cap ture the commercial savings achieved, we can also monitor the sustainability sav ings. Our approach is tangible and based on longstanding technical expertise.” Shell’s South African footprint

to their bottom line. When the correct high performing lubricant is used, it delivers total cost of ownership savings, which translates to sustainability savings. Essentially, this means that when less lubri cant is used, less energy is consumed and less CO₂ is released.” Carbon compensation Shell Lubricant Solutions also offers customers a carbon compen sation programme for their lubrication needs, to help them reduce the environmental impact of their mining operations. “Many companies are keen to unlock immediate sustainability benefits, and where consumables, lubricants and fuels have long been viewed as a cost, with the introduction of carbon compensa tion, the perspective is evolving to the products now being viewed as enablers. Shell offers carbon compensation to forward looking mining companies that are targeting a lower CO₂ footprint,” says Terzova. “Two years ago, when the topic of decarbonisation began to gain traction, mining companies started to evaluate a host of decar bonisation solutions, including full scale renewable electrification, adopting fuels and lubricants with a low carbon footprint and low emissions equipment and vehicles, amongst others. What we see emerging is the need for a step-by-step approach, especially given that some solutions are set to take some time to scale up before the associated gains are experienced. This is where carbon compensa tion becomes part of the journey and the solution. Importantly, the Shell carbon compensation programme is internationally certified.” Further to this, an increasing number of miners are tuning to biodegradable lubricants which offer lower toxicity levels and have a lower impact on soil, water and human handling. Terzova explains that the misconception of the past – that bio degradable lubricants are inferior when compared to conventional products – has changed. “Shell’s range of biodegradable solutions, designed to provide companies with performance and sustainability benefits, sees a growing demand across the globe, with miners adopting sustain able solutions because they are mandated or to help deliver on miners’ sustainability ambition.” Furthermore, Shell partners with mining houses to better under stand their operational needs, identify efficiency gaps in their

High performing lubricants that are designed to increase

efficiency and achieve sustainability benefits.

Shell has aligned its social responsibility agenda to South Africa’s focus on corporate social initiatives (CSIs) and social labour plans (SLPs) with the company collaborating with mining companies on their social sustainability or community projects. “Our role is tailor-made to suit each miner’s specific operations, be it an opencast or underground mining project, as each has dif ferent community impacts. Together with the customer, we come up with potential ideas and solutions for each mine.” Terzova says that South Africa is a leading incubator for Shell’s solutions on the African continent, with her role being to transfer best practice initiatives to mines across the globe. “As mines are usually in isolated areas, best practice initiatives often take place in isolation, which makes my role even more rel evant. I visit mines across the world, learn of the various solutions being implemented and transfer each exchange to peers globally. We position Shell as a supplier of choice, collaborating with min ers to unlock value from their equipment and lubrication practices. The ultimate goal is to deliver productivity, commercial value, and sustainability benefits to mining houses as an integrated solution, both today and into the future,”concludes Terzova. 

April 2024  MODERN MINING  9