Our southern African partner countries face a complex set of climate mitigation challenges, and there's growing need for companies to partner in the broader, multi-stakeholder response.
As part of our commitment to climate action and reducing emissions, we are looking at ways to move away from fossil fuels and towards more sustainable energy sources. In many of the places where we operate the grid is predominately coal powered, and availability of renewable electricity is limited so we have looked for opportunities to support the transition towards more renewable and reliable energy sources.
In South Africa, we are working with Envusa Energy - a joint venture between Anglo American and EDF renewables to provide wheeled renewable electricity to our operations. Set up to develop and supply wind and solar energy solutions at scale, Envusa aims to generate 520MW of electricity in its first phase. To put this into context, 520MW is almost equivalent to the entire Namibian electricity grid.
“We believe this energy transition offers a unique opportunity to generate substantial new economic opportunities as part of South Africa's journey towards an inclusive, sustainable, and low-carbon economy."
Chair of Anglo American's Management Board in South Africa and Chair of Envusa Energy
Making use of abundant natural resources
By using abundant natural resources across numerous sites, Envusa is helping decarbonise the industry, support the resilience of the local electricity supply systems and catalyse South Africa's renewable energy sector as part of the country's broader clean and renewable energy transition.
Bringing solar power to one of the world’s deepest diamond mines
Our Venetia Mine will offtake 48MW of renewable electricity from the Envusa network, specifically the K2 cluster, to help power it's operations. As we transitioned to underground operations in Venetia, we electrified as far as possible, with the overall aim of using 100% renewable electricity in 2026. This will be a major milestone for De Beers.