1000 ton per day ice plant for underground cooling at Harmony gold mine

Up to now all refrigeration plants used for mine cooling have used chilled water. When these refrigeration plants are situated on the surface, large quantities of water must be sent into the mine and pumped back to the surface again. It was suggested that a viable and economic alternative was to make ice on the surface and send this into the mine to reduce the quantity of water required. This Paper describes the world's first very large ice plant used for mine cooling. Ice from this plant is used to cool hot water originating at an underground fissure, and, in addition, provides cooling in the mine.