Rio Tinto agrees power deal with Australia's largest solar farm

(Sharecast News) - Mining giant Rio Tinto said it had agreed to buy electricity from the Upper Calliope solar farm in the state of Queensland to power its Gladstone aluminium operations for 25 years. The Anglo-Australian miner signed the deal with developer European Energy to buy all power generated from the 1.1 gigawatt farm. It is looking to halve its direct emissions by the end of the decade.

"Competitive capacity, firming, and transmission are critical to developing a modern energy system that can ensure more large-scale renewables development in Queensland and help guarantee the future of Australian industry," said Rio chief executive Jakob Stausholm in a statement on Wednesday.

In a separate statement, the company said some of its employees had died in a plane which crashed en route to a Canadian mine.

The Northwestern Air flight was travelling to the Diavik mine when it crashed near Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, Canada on Tuesday morning.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com