Located in the Pilbara, Western Australia, Gudai-Darri is Rio Tinto’s first Greenfield mine in the region in more than a decade. Stretching across both Banjima and Yindjibarndi country, both Traditional Owners were engaged through the planning and development stages in Rio Tinto’s most technologically advanced iron ore mine yet. Gudai-Darri features the world’s first autonomous water carts, trucks, drills and trains, as well as a robotic ore sampling laboratory and solar farm. Gudai-Darri has a 40-year mine life and will support thousands of jobs moving into the future.

The Brief 

Rheem Commercial was selected by SPP Group to work with Primero and Aussie Modular Solutions in providing a sustainable hot water solution to Gudai-Darri. The project required a solution for the transit shower lounge block to enable 400 end-of-swing showers, which had a total hot water demand of 24,000 litres.

The plant required all the usual features including back up redundancy, energy efficiency and consideration of limited energy infrastructure.

The Solution

Rheem Commercial supplied 35kW Air to Water Heat Pumps, and large volume RT series storage tanks featuring boost elements, which deliver water up to 65°C while being energy efficient. Available in vertical, horizontal and stackable options, the heat pumps were oriented to best fit the space and reduce footprint. The hot water plant design was split into two, for male and female shower blocks.

To ensure the safety of Rio Tinto workers, Rheem included LAN cables 17495 in the plant solution design. These cables facilitate ground-level monitoring of the stacked heat pumps through the master heat pump located at ground level, thus avoiding potential OH&S risks from working at height.

See the full kit for the Rio Tinto Transit shower lounge below.

The skids were assembled just outside Perth Metro by AMS and Holdfast Contracting, with support from Rheem Commercial.

The Kit

Male showers:

  • 7 x Rheem 35kW Air to Water heat pump horizontal outlet
  • 6 x Rheem 3000L SS storage tanks RT3000N9ALU-1
  • 6 x Rheem 30kW Commercial Electrical Heating Unit
  • 3x Rheem LAN cables 17495

Female showers:

  • 1 x Rheem 35kW Air to Water heat pump horizontal outlet stackable 953035HS
  • 2 x Rheem 35kW Air to Water heat pump horizontal outlet 953035HO
  • 3 x Rheem 3000L SS storage tanks RT3000N9ALU-1
  • 3 x Rheem 30kW Commercial Electrical Heating Unit

FIND OUT MORE HERE ABOUT HOW RHEEM CAN CREATE A CUSTOM SOLUTION FOR YOU, NO MATTER THE SIZE.

READ OTHER RHEEM COMMERCIAL CASE STUDIES

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