Response from Paul First of all, regarding Rio’s necessity for having a grid, what Rio is after (and to be honest ourselves and all copper producers) is a source of green energy to power the mine. Right now it looks like a BC-Yukon grid connection is the most likely solution to this issue, but we are looking at a number of solutions along with the Yukon government, which is championing the grid interconnection.
We did look at hydrogen, and this is a definite area to watch. The issue at the moment is the transportation cost, which is still prohibitive. It is interesting as an energy storage solution, and I know that Yukon Energy has looked at this as a longer term energy storage solution, but haven’t moved forward with anything concrete yet.
Cheers,
Paul