Challenge In the tunnels of the Agnico Eagle Laronde gold mine, 2.62 kilometers below the surface of the earth, it’s a challenging environment. Air enters the mine through multiple fresh air openings, circulates through the underground tunnels filled with workers and machinery, and returns to the surface through exhaust airways. Extreme conditions in the exhaust airways, including high temperatures and humidity levels, dust filled air, machine exhaust and hot, dirty water, as well as space limitations, make chiller operating conditions a definite challenge. Selected for their high-temperature operation, three Trane 1000-ton chillers were installed in the mine to keep workers comfortable. Not designed for the harsh mine environment, the chillers failed, with the extreme conditions causing

Join for free to read