BBE is currently involved in three separate refrigeration projects for Australian mines. The projects are at Rosebery Mine (Zinifex) in Western Tasmania, Argyle Diamond Mine (Rio Tinto) and Granites Gold Mine (Newmont) in Western Australia. BBE has an EPCM contract with Rosebery for the installation of two underground cooling plants, each with a nominal capacity of 1.8 MW. All process design and detailed engineering work has been done in-house in our Johannesburg office while equipment and contractors have been sourced in Australia.
BBE is working in association with RHP on the Granites and Argyle projects and is responsible for the hydraulic design, on-site project management and commissioning. The Granites is installing three 2.2 MW machines on surface to supply chilled water for bulk air cooling. Dry evaporative condensers are to be used instead of a conventional cooling tower due to the shortage of make-up water. Argyle is installing two 6 MW refrigeration machines on surface to supply chilled water for bulk air cooling. All these plants are due to be commissioned in 2006.