Eldorado Gold is conducting tests of Newtrax’s environmental monitoring platform and ventilation on demand (VoD) solution at the Olympias mine in Greece. The benefits of VoD include targeted air circulation, improved air quality, right-sizing fans for energy efficiency, lower GHG emissions, and enabling production at lower mine levels. Newtrax is a part of Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions.
The implementation of VoD aims to address the energy crisis in the European Union and align with Eldorado’s Energy and Carbon Management System given that mine ventilation represents the single largest electrical load at the Olympias mine.
During 2022, the Olympias mine operations team introduced a manual approach to VoD by making daily adjustments to ventilation fan operations according to the mine plan.
This resulted in a 40% decrease in energy consumption, from 620 kWh/mth to 377 kWh/mth per kW of fan capacity. This reduction represents about 9,051 MWh/y of electricity savings and about 3,800 t/y of GHG emission reductions, according to Eldorado Gold.
To further reduce energy consumption and eliminate manual adjustments, Eldorado enlisted Newtrax to implement an automated VoD system utilizing LTE as the communications medium.
Furthermore, Eldorado Gold is evaluating non-diesel-powered equipment for new purchases, considering the mine ventilation benefits of equipment electrification in the evaluation process.
The company plans to complete troubleshooting and establish communication between underground fans and Newtrax BLE devices before full implementation by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
Source: INTERNATIONAL MINING
Image Source: Eldorado Gold, Olympias Mine