Conference Proceedings
Eighth Underground Operators' Conference 2002
Conference Proceedings
Eighth Underground Operators' Conference 2002
The R67 Refrigeration Plant at Enterprise Mine, Mount Isa - The World's Largest Bulk Air Cooler
The 3.5 million tones per annum Enterprise mine is the newest underground copper mine at Mount Isa in northern Australia. At a depth of up to 2000 metres, it is the hottest and deepest mine in Australia. In situ rock temperatures sometimes exceed 60C requiring the installation of substantial amount of refrigeration to provide safe working conditions for mine workers. The latest refrigeration project at the mine, R67, required the design and installation of the world's largest bulk air cooler and Australia's largest chilled water plant. The plant is mounted on the surface of the mine and provides 25 MW of refrigeration to cool some 580 kg/sec of ambient air to 11.4C. This is equivalent to the production of 6300 tonnes of ice per day. The plant was designed for high availability, as any downtime would result in substantial production losses to MIM, and also had the potential to quickly result in unsafe levels of heat stress within the underground workplaces. The bulk air cooler has been designed for a capacity of 34 MW(R), the expected ultimate carrying capacity of the 7 m vertical intake shaft. Being located well inside the tropics, technical issues such as control of thermal pulldown required special consideration. Also, the bulk air cooler had to be designed to handle whatever demand for fresh air was imposed by the mine below, with over 100 per cent variations in airflow expected, and without loss of thermal efficiency. A substantial program of risk assessment and HAZOP studies was used to protect underground miners from leaks of ammonia into the air or water circuits. Fully automatic control systems result in a totally unmanned plant that is supervised remotely. To improve efficiency, the plant is controlled by the outlet air temperature from the bulk air cooler - the first in the world to be controlled in this fashion. Engineering solutions to address environmental considerations were incorporated at the design stage through features such as the use of ammonia (a greenhouse-friendly gas) as the refrigerant, zero atmospheric discharge and a wastewater collection and re-use system.
Contributor(s):
D J Brake
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- Published: 2002
- PDF Size: 0.658 Mb.
- Unique ID: P200205038