AIIM reaches financial close on wind farms to supply Rio Tinto and Sibanye-Stillwater
Wind farms to supply renewable energy to the operations of Rio Tinto’s Richards Bay Minerals and Sibanye Stillwater.
African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), a division of Old Mutual Alternative Investments, has reached financial close on the 140MW Khangela and 140MW Umsinde Emoyeni wind farms to supply renewable energy to the operations of Rio Tinto’s Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) and Sibanye Stillwater via wheeling agreements.
The projects have been led and developed by AIIM’s renewable energy project development platform ACED. Reatile Renewables has co-invested in the projects alongside the AIIM-managed IDEAS Fund, one of South Africa’s largest domestic infrastructure equity funds. Rand Merchant Bank is the sole mandated lead arranger for both projects, and operations and maintenance services for the projects once built will be provided by AIIM’s in-house operator, EIMS.
“We are immensely proud to have achieved financial close and construction commencement on another two private renewables projects in partnership with some of South Africa’s key mining houses. Not only will the projects provide Rio’s Richards Bay Minerals and Sibanye Stillwater with clean energy for their operations, but they will also create jobs and development funding streams to support and grow local communities living adjacent to the projects,” said James Cumming, general manager of ACED.
The deal entails the sale of power to the mining houses through 20-year power purchase agreements. Khangela and Umsinde Emoyeni Wind Farms are situated near Murraysburg in the Western Cape, with a small portion of the proposed development site falling into the Northern Cape. Windlab South Africa (now Seriti Green) was the early-stage developer of the sites, which were then acquired and developed to financial close by ACED.
“The addition of increased power generation capacity to the national grid will contribute to offsetting the power deficit currently being experienced in the country,” said Cumming.
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