Rio Tinto completes renewable diesel transition at Kennecott

In December, Power Progress reported that mining group Rio Tinto would replace fossil diesel at its Kennecott copper mine in Utah with renewable diesel. The company announced it has completed that transition for all its heavy mining equipment at the location. According to Rio Tinto, the transition gives the Kennecott mine one of the lowest carbon footprints of any copper producer in the U.S.

Rio Tinto said Kennecott’s fleet of 97 haul trucks and heavy machinery equipment at the mine, concentrator, smelter, refinery and tailings are now fueled by renewable diesel sourced in the U.S. The renewable diesel being used is currently a combination of 90 percent soybean, with the remainder being animal fat and used cooking oil.

The development is expected to reduce the mine’s Scope 1 emissions by 450,000 metric tons, the company said, which is equivalent to the annual emissions of 107,000 cars. In addition, the switch reduces emissions of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) of the haul truck fleet by 40 percent.

According to Rio Tinto, Kennecott’s transition to renewable fuel will also make low-carbon fuel more accessible in the state of Utah. In partnership with Kennecott, U.S. petroleum refiner HF Sinclair is dedicating two tanks to renewable diesel for the mine, each having a capacity of 756,000 gallons.

The carbon footprint at Kennecott has been reduced by more that 80 percent compared to 2018 levels, Rio Tinto said. This is due to the transition to renewable diesel as well as recent initiatives such as the closure of a coal-fired power plant, installation of a 5MW solar farm and deployment of battery electric vehicles (BEV) underground.

Combined with Rio Tinto’s Boron mine, which completed the full transition of its heavy machinery from fossil diesel to renewable diesel in May 2023, renewable diesel use at Kennecott has replaced 11 percent of Rio Tinto’s global fossil diesel consumption with renewable diesel, the company said.

Rio Tinto is targeting reductions in Scope 1 and 2 emissions of 50 percent by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

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