Publication date: 15 November 2025
Published by MACKGOLD | OBSIDIAN CIRCLE
Strategic Geopolitics and Natural Resources Unit
mackgold.com
Australia remains one of the world’s leading gold-producing nations and is simultaneously becoming a laboratory for a new model of dealing with depleted deposits. According to industry reports, in the 2024/2025 financial year the country again reached a level of around three hundred tonnes of annual gold output. Major operations — Boddington, Super Pit (KCGM), Cadia, St Ives, Tropicana — each deliver hundreds of thousands of ounces per quarter, forming a combined production value equivalent to tens of billions of Australian dollars in export revenue.
Forecasts indicate that in 2024 mining output declined slightly, to about 10.3 million ounces — roughly 320–330 tonnes — marking the fourth consecutive year of moderate contraction. The reasons are not tied to the depletion of Australia’s gold potential, but to the shift toward more complex underground mining geometries, delays in bringing new blocks online, and the tightening of environmental requirements for mining projects.
Against this backdrop, the example of the Mount Rawdon mine in Queensland has become especially significant. Until recently it was an active open-pit gold operation managed by Evolution Mining. In September 2025, the company announced the completion of ore extraction and the transition to a fundamentally different phase of the site’s life cycle: the pit will be converted into a pumped hydro energy storage facility. The Mount Rawdon Pumped Hydro project is positioned as the first case in Australia where a producing gold mine is transformed into a large-scale energy-storage asset.
The project involves creating two reservoirs at different elevations, with the lower reservoir formed within the existing Mount Rawdon pit. According to the Queensland Government and assessment documentation, the proposed investment volume stands at around AUD 3.3 billion, with a projected storage capacity of up to 20 GWh. The configuration provides for generation of up to 2 GW over ten hours, or longer-duration output at lower power. In perspective, the facility could cover the evening peak demand of up to two million households in the state. Construction is expected to create around one thousand jobs, with up to fifty permanent positions thereafter.
Queensland has already declared its support for the project: no less than AUD 50 million has been allocated for the preparatory and feasibility phases, part of which is channelled through the state-owned low-carbon generator CleanCo. This decision aligns with the region’s broader strategy to expand pumped hydro capacity, which includes the upgrade of the Wivenhoe station and the development of another system based on the depleted Kidston gold mine in North Queensland, where a 250-MW pumped hydro complex with an eight-hour storage cycle is under construction.
The scientific groundwork for such projects had been laid earlier. A study by the Australian National University group on the potential use of former mining sites for pumped hydro storage identified 37 suitable pits and shafts across Australia. The authors noted that large open pits possess a unique combination of depth, volume and geometry that enables the creation of reservoirs with minimal additional excavation, thereby reducing capital costs and landscape impact compared to building entirely new hydro infrastructure.
However, requirements for reliability and risk management remain high. Reports from analytical centres such as the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis emphasise that transferring pumped hydro schemes onto former mining sites requires special attention to pit-wall stability, hydrogeology, long-term liability and protection of taxpayer interests. The central issue concerns not only engineering feasibility but also the model for distributing financial and environmental risks between private investors and the state.
In a broader context, the Australian experience fits into the global race for decarbonisation of the mining sector. International assessments estimate that mining and mineral processing account for 4 to 7 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions. Australian companies, including Fortescue, have announced their intent to achieve so-called “real zero” carbon emissions by 2030–2031, focusing on electrifying equipment, transitioning to renewables and deploying battery systems at industrial sites.
In this perspective, gold mines emerge not only as metal producers but also as testbeds for energy and infrastructure transformation. During their active phase, mines provide export revenue, employment and regional development; once extraction ends, they can transform into key elements of energy-storage architecture. The Mount Rawdon project demonstrates that gold-mining infrastructure can acquire a “second life” as part of the reliability backbone of the energy system, balancing variable solar and wind generation with stable consumer demand.
For Australia as a gold-producing nation, this represents a qualitative shift in the logic of resource utilisation. Gold remains an important export commodity and a store of value, yet the geography of gold deposits is increasingly viewed as a resource for energy resilience. A mine ceases to be an abandoned scar on the map and becomes an engineering asset with a long life cycle, transitioning from a source of ore to a storage component of the power system.
From a strategic-analysis standpoint, the examples of Mount Rawdon and Kidston indicate the trajectory along which the relationship between the mining sector and energy policy may evolve. If similar projects are developed on even a fraction of the potential sites identified by researchers, Australia will gain not only the status of a major gold producer but also that of a global leader in integrating exhausted mineral deposits into the infrastructure of a low-carbon economy. For regulators and investors, this forms a new class of assets where value is measured not only in ounces contained in the ore but also in megawatt-hours of dispatchable power that a former gold pit can deliver.
The Australian model shows that the fate of gold mines in the twenty-first century may differ fundamentally from the logic of classical industrialisation. With proper planning, they become elements of long-term infrastructure and pillars of the energy transition, while the gold extracted from the earth continues to function in the economy not only as metal, but also as a foundation for new forms of resilience.
Authors:
MACKGOLD | OBSIDIAN CIRCLE
Strategic Geopolitics and Natural Resources Unit