A new cooling car valve, which was designed to reduce the pumping cost in dewatering activities in deep-level mines and to pro-vide cooling with less water, is a mining system developed by HPE for the mining industry, reports HPE director and CEO André Swart.

HPE has supplied 20 of its cooling car valve systems to Gold Fields’ Driefontein gold mine.

HPE hopes to garner a contract to supply a cooling car valve system to AngloGold Ashanti, after the company recently undertook a pilot project to install the new valve system at the mining stable’s Mponeng mining operation.

Swart says that HPE’s new cooling car valve system contributes to the energy-saving practices of mining companies, by reducing the amount of water that has to be pumped out of the mine.

HPE’s cooling car valves ensure a constant flow through a cooling car, irrespective of the flow demand from the downstream operations, reports the company.

“This new valve enables savings of 6 ℓ/s that can be put back into the pipeline, which can then be used in production. The valve system is used on open-ended cooling cars to reduce the wastage of water onto the footwall during the production shift,” explains Swart.

HPE reports that if, for example, mining operations draw 9 ℓ/s and a cooling car has a capacity of 6 ℓ/sec, the valve will divert the 6 ℓ/s required by the cooling car to flow through the cooling car and then return all 6 ℓ/s to the pipeline for mining use – therefore, no additional water is used for cooling.

When the mining demand falls to 3 ℓ/s less than the 6 ℓ/s that is needed by the cooling car, the valve will pass 6 ℓ/s through the car, of which 3 ℓ/s will discharge to the drain.

The cooling car will then only consume the shortfall, and not the full 6 ℓ/s, which would occur in a standard open-circuit cooling car system.

The valve is installed in the main pipeline and regulates the amount of water dumped to waste, translating into less water and less dewatering pumping costs, reports the company.

Swart says that the new cooling car valve, which is designed and manufactured by HPE, is the only product of its kind available in South Africa, and was developed to fill a specific need. HPE has also supplied its flagship hydropower technology to mining operations in South Africa, and Swart hopes to capitalise on the current electricity shortage crisis that has cut into productivity at many mining operations in the country.

“The industry has realised that compressed air operations are hugely inefficient in their use of power and that compressors need to be shut down,” states Swart.

The high-pressure water system is enabled through gravity or by combining gravity and pressure-generating pumps or by only using pressure generating pumps.

The system is able to provide an energy-effi- cient medium for cost-effective mining and industrial water hydraulics, reports HPE.

Swart says that a water-operated drifter is the latest development in HPE’s hydropower technology.

“The 10k-W water-operated drifter is three times more powerful than current water drilling machines. The equipment is used on drill rigs for flat end and raise development,” reports Swart.
 

http://www.miningweekly.co.za/article.php?a_id=129572