Authors: S. M. Sithole, J. H. van Laar, A. Gous, C. Schutte
Year: 2025
Industry: General Industries
Keywords: Mention FSE, Dynamic, Comparison
ABSTRACT
The South African gold mining industry is eighth in gold production with ore grades decreasing from 12 g/t in 1970 to 5 g/t in 2014. Consequently, South African gold mines must mine at increased depths to sustain profits. The increasing mining depths introduce several challenges that hinder efficient mineral extraction in mines. The sustainability and profitability of the mines can be enhanced by improving underground service delivery and implementing operational improvement measures. This paper employs a case study methodology to develop an integrated method for evaluating the performance of installed tertiary and secondary cooling components (MCUs and BACs) in deep-level mines, and outlines a pre-installation performance evaluation for planning new installations. The method was implemented on a case study mine, where an existing BAC was investigated. It was noted that the performance of the BAC was 29 % compared to the maximum allowable heat transfer in the selected area. Additionally, it reported a performance of 39 % compared to the initial design heat transfer of the installed cooling coils. Furthermore, a performance comparison of the design heat transfer and the maximum allowable heat transfer in the area was evaluated to be 74 %, which implies that the BAC was under-designed. Visual inspections revealed a high level of fouling on the cooling coils, and the affected coils were subsequently replaced with more efficient ones. This increased the heat transfer duty, and the overall performance of the BAC increased by over 50 % from the initial BAC duty of approximately 450 kW. The study outlined the importance of utilizing dynamic simulation models to predict operating inlet conditions of tertiary systems, thus enhancing the planning and performance evaluation approaches. A significant improvement potential was outlined for the installed BAC.