The corrosion costs to the South African mining industry are in excess of R1 billion (US$ 300 million) per year. An area of particular concern is in the mine shafts where not only can the conditions be very corrosive, but shaft utilization entails that there is very little time available for maintenance, repair etc. The problems are compounded in the newer ultra-deep gold mines (up to 4 km or 214 miles deep), where large volumes of sometimes untreated water are required for both the mining operation and cooling. This paper details the corrosion problems encountered in shafts, and also the problems associated with performing in situ evaluations.

Subject
Humidity, Costs, Water, Materials, Corrosion rate, Corrosivity, Mechanical damage, Dissolved solids, Personnel, Steel, Mining, Chlorides, Relative humidity
Keywords:
corrosion, mining, humidity, ore spillage
© 1995 Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of AMPP. Positions and opinions advanced in this work are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AMPP. Responsibility for the content of the work lies solely with the author(s).
1995
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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