Optimising the Refrigeration and Cooling System of a Platinum Mine

The platinum mining sector of South Africa has been hit by the combined impacts of falling Platinum Group Metals prices, labour strikes and escalating production cost. The main contributor pertaining to production cost rises is the increasing electricity tariffs. In order for mines in the platinum sector to remain competitive, they need to reduce the energy consumption of electrical intensive mining equipment. Platinum mines in SA require large surface refrigeration systems due to the high underground Virgin Rock Temperatures gradients. Due to these high demands, refrigeration and cooling systems are identified as one of the most intensive electricity consumers in the mining process. The need, therefore, exists to investigate optimisation strategies that can improve the Energy Efficiency of platinum mines refrigeration and cooling system. The availability of Eskom's Energy Efficiency Demand-Side Management incentives provides the opportunity to optimise the electricity consumption with cost-effective strategies. The incentive will not only reduce the demand of electricity, but also assist platinum mines on managing their production cost increases more cost-effectively.