Goldcorp’s Red Lake Gold Mine

Location: Red Lake, Ontario

Goldcorp Inc. was undergoing an expansion project that required a new shaft to increase hoisting capacity, reduce time to access the workplaces, and provide significant cost savings leading towards increased production.

With the results from Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling, VIRTUAL designed the Return Air Rise (RAR) system for the gold mine expansion in northern Ontario. The RAR exhaust system consists of two (2) – 250,000 cfm exhaust ducts, inlet silencer and return air fans. Each of the two ducts measures 2.1 m x 2.1 m (7 ft x 7 ft) and the total length of the exhaust fan system is 24 m (78 ft).

VIRTUAL prepared the 3D model of the system, the complete mechanical design and fabrication drawings, the welding details and the bill of materials. The results from CFD modeling were used to design an extremely energy efficient and quiet mine exhaust system. In fact this system is 15-35% more energy efficient than a traditional mine exhaust system.