Many industries are finding that not only are there marketing benefits to shrinking their environmental footprint, but cost-saving benefits as well. And while certain industries are able to make a seamless switch to green, other industries — such as mining — find it a little more difficult.

However, when international mining giant Vale first hired Sudbury, Ont.-based engineering, automation and software development firm Bestech to help design a ventilation-on-demand system for its Coleman mine, the original goal wasn’t to save energy; it was merely to find a way to move air around more efficiently.

Mining ventilation systems are one of the most costly components of the mining process — both money-wise and production-wise. With the amount of contaminants and fumes that are created by the mining process, proper ventilation is required to ensure all of a mine’s people, and equipment, are able to work. With the mind-boggling number of shafts in an average mine, a lot of ventilation is required to keep the air moving.

Traditionally, to ensure a mine was properly ventilated, one had to over-ventilate. Fans on the surface would push fresh air down, and auxiliary fans underground were required to push air through the drifts.

“Because mine circuits are so complex, you’re often looking at between 100 to 200 auxiliary fans running 24/7 at 100-percent capacity,” says Marc Boudreau, president and CEO of Bestech. “As a result, it’s not unheard of for ventilation costs alone to range between $3 million and $6 million annually.”

This type of ventilation system also limits productivity because one can only mine in areas where you have proper airflow and air quality. If one wanted to expand activity to another area of the mine that wasn’t ventilated, they’d have to first reconfigure their ventilation plan.

Enter ventilation-on-demand
The purpose of a ventilation-on-demand system is to only ventilate those areas that are in use — thus, drastically reducing energy usage. While the concept has been around for approximately 25 years, Bestech was one of the first to establish a system that is using state-of-the-art technology and robust enough to work in a harsh mining environment.

The company has been working on ventilation control strategies since 2000, and is currently on its third version of its software — NRG1-ECO. “Back in 2000, we were focused solely on developing scheduling tools — turning the fans up and down according to a predetermined schedule,” Boudreau says. “What we were doing was unique at the time because we were using web applications — and that was cutting-edge software back then. We were really pushing the envelope of real-time systems over the web.”

Through the decade, the software evolved, and in 2009, Bestech started planning its third version, with a focus on increasing functionality through even more advanced technology. While Vale was one of the first companies to help dictate the direction of the new software, it was just one of Bestech’s many partners in the project. That’s because the goal of this project was different: it wasn’t to merely reduce a mine’s ventilation energy usage, but to optimize mining processes, people and equipment and increase productivity.

“At the end of the day, production rules,” Boudreau says. “Mining operating costs range from $200 to $400 million per year, so what is $1 to $3 million in energy savings? It’s a start, and in reality provides a two to three-year ROI. The bigger benefit is increasing overall productivity, which can yield tens of millions in increased revenues.”

The advanced nature of the product, as well as the potential environmental angle, qualified the project for federal R&D dollars and simultaneously captured the attention of other government research groups and non-profit foundations. To qualify for funding for one of these foundations, Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), Bestech was required to establish an industry consortium.

The consortium, which continues to provide support to Bestech, consists of research partners (such as MIRARCO, which is a research company affiliated with Laurentian University), funding partners (such as the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation as well as clients like Vale and Xstrata) and technology partners (such as RFID vendors, which help ensure the program is easily integrated). It proves to be a valuable resource for the company, offering plenty of sound advice, ideas and suggestions (along with funding) to make sure the project is something that can truly move the mining industry forward.