Keeping A Gold Mine Cool
Client: Harmony Gold Mine Company
Location: Free State, South Africa
Sectors: Mining
The Challenge
Delays to the Phakisa mine cooling system
Harmony Gold Mining Company had commissioned ice-making plants to cool their 2.4 kilometre-deep Phakisa mine. When they discovered the plants wouldn't be ready on time, they asked us to step in and find a way to bridge the gap, fast. With summer on its way, the mines wouldn't be safe without comprehensive cooling –but downtime would mean disaster for the business.
Project fact file
Product Design Engineer , Harmony Gold Mine Co. Ltd
Marius De Leeuw
The Solution
A complete cooling package in days
Within days, we surveyed the site and delivered a complete, temporary cooling system, which would keep the mine in perfect operating conditions until the new plant could take over. Bringing in equipment from our South Africa depots meant we could get it on site quickly, and our technical team was on hand to operate the system until the new cooling plant came online.
The Impact
100% uptime and no loss of productivity
We're known for our local resources and expertise, and there's no doubt it made a huge difference here. With a large technical team and several local depots in South Africa, we were able to visit the site, design the right solution, deliver it, install it and have it up and running within days. We know the local infrastructure and work as an extension of our customers' team –an approach that gets the job done much faster, and saves our customers money time after time.