February, 2023

New cooling towers for gold mine refrigeration plant expansion

Our sister company, IWC South Africa were recently awarded the tender by Sibanye Stillwater to design, fabricate, and erect a new Pultruded GRP condenser cooling tower for their Kloof mine.

Kloof gold mine is located near Westonaria in Gauteng, South Africa and is one of the deepest mines in the world (operating at levels of between 1000m and 3500m underground). In 2020 it was listed as the biggest gold mine in South Africa and produced 352,000 ounces (oz) of gold.

Requirement

New chiller condenser cooling tower for gold mine refrigeration plant expansion.

Solution

The new Pultruded GRP cooling tower installation is part of the mine’s refrigeration plant expansion and will provide condenser cooling to two of the chillers installed at the refrigeration plant.

“Our pultruded GRP towers are designed and built according to project specifications and offer a cost effective alternative to traditional cooling tower materials such as concrete and steel”.

Glass Reinforced Polyester (GRP) offers several advantages; lightweight (typically quarter the weight of steel), corrosion and chemical resistance, electrical insulation, unrivalled durability and long service life, lower capital cost, and ease of installation.

The highlight of the project for us was that we very rarely actually build new pultruded GRP cooling towers in South Africa. Most new projects are abroad, so it was great to be able to take day trip to see the progress of the tower as it was being built.