Australia's biggest gold miner called to help stabilise WA's power issues

Mining industry spearheads energy transition at Kalgoorlie on edge of WA's main power grid Wed 29 Jul 2026 at 1:01pm In short: The WA government is working with the mining industry to secure additional back-up power generation for Kalgoorlie-Boulder to support the state's main power grid. The city's 30,000 residents and nearby mining operations have been hit by repeated blackouts due to their remote position on the grid. Western Power and gold miner Northern Star Resources are negotiating for the supply of up to 70 megawatts of additional capacity for the grid. Australia's biggest gold miner is being asked to carry a larger load to resolve decades of power capacity and reliability woes in WA's electricity network. The owner of Kalgoorlie's Super Pit gold mine, Northern Star Resources, is negotiating commercial terms with government-owned utility Western Power to supply additional back-up power to the historic mining city. Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said the plan would ensure there was no repeat of the 2024 blackouts which hit the city in the peak of summer, and would help limit outages that have plagued the city for decades. A newly signed memorandum of understanding commits up to 70 megawatts of electricity supply from the 110-megawatt Parkeston power station at Kalgoorlie, which Northern Star jointly owns with Canadian electricity wholesaler TransAlta. It shapes as a transformative deal for Kalgoorlie-Boulder, which sits on the eastern edge of the South West Interconnected System (SWIS), connected via a 655km-long transmission line in place since 1984. "We looked at a range of options and models, including government-owned and operated, and we went to market," Ms Sanderson said. "Essentially we enter into an arrangement with Northern Star to use their Parkeston facility, and any excess power. "It means should we have any catastrophic event on that main transmission line, we can get that backup running quickly so people don't experience long-term blackouts." Power boost on horizon The proposal also includes plans to expand capacity once Northern Star builds a new 140-megawatt thermal power station and a separate 366-megawatt renewable facility, which would include up to 32 wind turbines and 230,000 solar panels. Northern Star's chief technical officer, Steve McClare, said both projects would deliver lower electricity inputs for the $1.6 billion expansion of the Super Pit's Fimiston Mill. "They are in the very final stages, and we are going into that this financial year," he said. The company has forecast expenditure of at least $160 million on the thermal power station, using natural gas and diesel generation. Four outages a month It is set to provide a significant boost to power security in the Goldfields, where WA's peak resources industry body has been calling for "urgent improvements". The Chamber of Minerals and Energy said its Goldfields membership reported an average of four power outages a month during 2025. It also estimated wholesale power costs for large industrial customers using the grid have doubled since 2020, rising from about $125 per megawatt-hour to as much as $250 last year. The estimate formed part of a public submission to the Economic Regulation Authority, which has been reviewing Western Power's access arrangements to the grid. Among the newest industrial users to connect to the grid was Lynas Rare Earths, which commissioned its Kalgoorlie cracking and leaching plant in late 2024. It reported losing the equivalent of one month's production due to power supply disruptions last November, and continues to be hampered by ongoing outages. Similarly, Kalgoorlie gold miner Evolution Mining is assessing plans for a potential wind farm, after losing three days of production during the June quarter due to power outages. Interim Lynas chief executive Pol Le Roux said the number of outages had reduced in recent months, but the company was still weighing up its own off-grid solution. "It's true the power supply is not up to where we want it to be," he said. "The situation has improved, there was some modifications made on the Western Power side. "We are staying within one power failure per month, which is not what we wish to have, but it's what we have; I would say it's manageable." Long-term plan for battery It comes as the WA government considers applications by more than 20 potential bidders to fulfil Labor's election promise to build a $150 million vanadium flow battery in Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Ms Sanderson said the emerging technology could create about 150 local jobs. "They're evaluating all of those business cases that were received and out of that a preferred proponent will be selected, and that's done by an independent panel with a recommendation to government," she said. Premier Roger Cook has previously said Kalgoorlie-Boulder's 50-megawatt battery would be operational by 2029, around the same time WA was scheduled to shut the last of its coal-fired power stations.