Mining and Exploration

Mining operations in Africa place huge demands on equipment in the field - FRIGOTHERM is well placed to meet your needs in this harsh environment.

Our range of plate and frame, shell and tube, and fin and tube heat exchangers exceed these demands time and again. They have become proven workhorses under the toughest conditions and are ideally suited to the harsh African continent. With over 45 years’ experience in the field and many thousands of units deployed, FRIGOTHERM’s heat exchangers have become a trusted brand synonymous with high quality and efficiency.

Oil cooling

Very often clean water is not available as a cooling medium, or simply places too high demands on the maintenance and cost requirements that liquid-cooled systems impose. FRIGOTHERM offers an alternative through our complete range of air blast oil coolers, high efficiency standard FOT series low maintenance oil coolers. These oil coolers continue to be used very successfully in hydraulic power packs, lube oil systems, and the cooling of quenching oils, engine or compressor oils. The highly rigid steel core can withstand extreme pressures, allowing high fault tolerance towards operating anomalies that occur with an aging system. For mobile applications an all-aluminium core with higher thermal efficiency is also available.

Gold elution cycles

The ground, gold-rich ore is at first bound onto activated carbon. The elution cycle starts where gold and other base metals are leached out of the carbon by means of sodium cyanide. The eluent is then processed through electrowinning, during which the precious metal attracts to cathodes during electrolysis. Finally the gold-rich concentrate from electrowinning is further processed in a smelting house into bullions. We design and supply shell and tube as well as plate and frame heat exchangers to exact specifications, as required by mining houses. The gold elution cycle requires a variety of heat exchange equipment for which our high heat transfer recovery plate and frame, shell and plate and shell and tube heat exchangers are perfectly suited. We also offer a full range of eluent heaters such as steam condensers, electrical eluent heaters and thermal oil eluent heaters.  Furthermore, our experienced design engineers make use of computerised thermal design programmes that offer optimal solutions and fast response times. Due to the corrosive nature of the chemicals used in the elution circuit and the presence of high chlorides, FRIGOTHERM commonly supplies in duplex steels and haste alloys. Fouling is a major problem during the elution process and consequently our heat exchangers are built with ease of maintenance and operation in mind. We ensure that the internal flow through the exchanger is highly turbulent, thereby avoiding fluid stagnation which is a major cause of fouling. Our pressure vessels are strictly designed and manufactured in accordance with major codes, specifically ASME Viii Div. 1, U-stamped. A dedicated document control department records and manages the complete project lifecycle. FRIGOTHERM has a stringent quality control system in place, ensuring that every single unit is supplied precisely as specified, on time.

Ore crushing

We work closely with manufactures of lubrication and hydraulic systems for gearboxes and bearings, sometimes rated at many thousands of kWs. We understand the demands of these critical components and offer valuable advice and expertise to the industry. Cone crushers, rotary ball mills and mobile crushers maintain optimal oil temperatures with our range of custom-built aluminium cored air blast coolers featuring specialised turbulators, all resulting in high heat transfer, a space saving footprint, very low maintenance and extreme durability. In cases where ambient temperatures are too high FRIGOTHERM supplies very low maintenance closed-circuit liquid-cooled systems.

Electrowinning and refining

Our extensive range of plate and frame heat exchangers is highly effective in the cooling of rectifier diodes and related control panels for use in copper electrolysis. The heating of the cold electrolyte via steam, thermal oil or hot water is handled at ease with custom-built, high K-factor shell and tube or plate and frame heat exchangers alike. Corrosion resistant materials ensure long lifespan and we commonly supply in titanium, duplex and haste alloys as an alternative to stainless steels.

Furnace and mold cooling

From a small 10 kW water-cooled induction-heated crucible to a 5 MW curtain-cooled smelter, we have an optimal cooling plant available to ensure safe, continuous operation. Very often this waste heat is also successfully recovered with our range of plate and frame heat exchangers. In cases where water-cooled systems are not desirable, our highly efficient aluminium finned stack coolers designed for low approach temperatures and very low maintenance are an excellent alternative.

Bulk conveying

Heavy duty belt conveyors often use hydraulic drives. The cooling equipment for these drives must be able to withstand extreme dusty environments. We supply air-cooled cores with wider than normal fin spacing, thereby significantly mitigating the tendency to block the cooling air passage through the core element. The extreme robust design allows the entire cooling unit to be washed down on site with little interruption to operations.