Call for mining industry to update its refrigerant systems

While the bulk of the mining industry uses HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) in their refrigerant systems, these are on the cards to be phased-out in accordance with the Montreal Protocol and Kigali Agreement to significantly phase-out ozone-depleting substances. While chlorofluorocarbons were used traditionally in the past, these were phased-out by the Montreal Protocol in the late 1990s, paving the way for the advent of HFCs. Now the Kigali Agreement is looking to the future phase-out of the latter, and their replacement with HFOs (hydrofluoro-olefins), the fourth generation of fluorine-based gases.