MINE VENTILATION
Carpe DPM
The mine ventilation sector is seeking to optimise ventilation outputs, reduce costs and improve the environment for underground workers. Dan Gleeson looks into how these three aims are being met
Alamos Gold has been highlighting of late how tighter control of ventilation fans can significantly improve energy efficiency at its underground mines.
The company installed a ventilation on demand( VoD) system at its Island Gold mine in Ontario, Canada, in 2023 and it has more than paid off when it comes to energy savings alone.
The VoD system allows operators to monitor and control over 100 fans in real time at the underground mine, which is serviced by a shaft and conducts hoisting operations.
This resulted in year-on-year energy savings of 3.2 million kWh in the first half of 2024 alone.
On top of this, the system allowed the mine to identify and retrofit oversized ventilation fans, further reducing power consumption by 1.86 million kWh annually, it claims.
With rising energy costs and the mining sector’ s push for operational efficiency, this approach could serve as a model for other underground mines looking to cut power usage without compromising safety.
Luc Guimond, COO of Alamos, said the project’ s roots are tied to one of the company’ s other mines.
“ The VoD program really started with our Young-Davidson operation,” he told IM.“ That’ s where it was originally implemented. From there, we have established a VoD process with regards to controls with all our ventilation fans underground.”
One of the key enablers of a successful VoD implementation at Young-Davidson – also a shaft-serviced underground mine – was the effective use of central dispatch controllers on surface that monitor the ventilation fans, the underground traffic and external conditions that may influence what fans need to start up, when these fans need to commence operations and at what capacity they need to run at based on the development or production task being carried out.
“ We refined this process at Young- Davidson and then migrated it over to Island Gold,” Guimond explained.“ The central dispatch team are in constant communication with our operations team – on the development side as well as production and construction side. This ongoing dialogue has allowed us, for instance, to optimise our production blasting that occurs at the end of each shift, ensuring that the right fans are turned off and restarted in good time to bring the next shift underground as soon as possible.”
Minetek says its Raptor Series fans cut power consumption by up to 50 % and enable compliance with increasingly stringent emission standards
The next phase of the VoD that will improve decision making is to further develop how the mines utilise sensor-based readings with LTE network installation.“ That’ s really the next phase of development,” Guimond said.“ The big benefit you’ ll see with that is in isolated areas where it could be just one piece of equipment working in that area for that given day. As the equipment moves into the area to work, the ventilation fans can come on based on the sensor readings and, as they remove themselves from that area, the fans would shut down. There is a huge energy savings aspect there with this type of VoD system.”
The changing make-up of Alamos Gold’ s vehicle fleet also provides another energy saving opportunity, too.
Guimond highlighted a growing fleet of battery-electric Miller Technology Relay light utility vehicles at its Young-Davidson mine, as well as a diesel-electric Cat R2900 XE loader running at the same mine. Both come with lower heat, noise, vibration and exhaust emission generation, meaning the area which they are working in would require reduced ventilation when compared with the standard diesel-powered equivalent.
“ The distribution of air within the network underground can certainly be modified as a result of those cleaner burning units relative to our diesel units,” he said.“ And, you know, it’ s all a function of the diesel particulate matter( DPM), right? Making sure that we’ re diluting and removing those emissions within the working environment.
“ We continue to constantly monitor our air flows and make sure we’ re within compliance with legislation, both at Island and at Young-Davidson.”
Ensuring safety through smarter control
Ventilation has evolved from passive systems like air doors and chimneys to steam-driven fans in the 19th century – the precursors of today’ s controlled systems. While the tools have changed, Becker Mining Systems says the core purpose remains the same: to make deep, confined mining environments safe and habitable. In contemporary underground operations, ventilation systems must fulfill three essential roles:
26 International Mining | JUNE 2025