Congress workshops
Congress workshops
Learn more about International Mine Ventilation Congress workshops
Designed specifically for our congress delegates, enhance your experience and gain additional professional development (PD) hours by attending a workshop.
All workshops will be held on Monday 12 August at the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth. Workshop registration is additional to Congress registration - $450 AUD inc GST. This includes access to all workshops. To attend a workshop, register for #IMVC2024.
Presenter: Morne Beukes, Canada; Ray Funnell, South Africa; Marle Hooman, Australia - BBE Group
Workshop 1A: Ventilation planning
- Date
- Monday, 12 August 2024
- Time
- 8:00am - 10:00am
- Location
-
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth
Ventilation planning forms an integral part of mining operations as it ensures personnel safety and health. Understanding the development and production schedules, associated mobile fleet, their respective ventilation requirements and heat load characteristics, will be discussed. Mining depth, energy management, and life-cycle costs will be considered and the phase-in requirements modeled using ventilation software.
Presenter: Basil Beamish, B3 Mining Services Pty Ltd, Australia
Workshop 1B: Spontaneous combustion refresher course on industry best practices
- Date
- Monday, 12 August 2024
- Time
- 8:00am - 10:00am
- Location
-
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth
Participants will be provided with an update on appropriate practices for spontaneous combustion hazard likelihood assessment, including some case study examples. In addition, recent examples of spontaneous combustion management practices covering gas monitoring and goaf environment management will be presented. For the first time, a brief overview of metalliferous spontaneous combustion hazard likelihood assessment will be presented.
Presenter: Howard Hindley, Mine & Tunnel Ventilation, Australia
Workshop 1C: Fans in parallel - Surface & underground
- Date
- Monday, 12 August 2024
- Time
- 8:00am - 10:00am
- Location
-
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth
MTV Presentation "Fans in Parallel - Surface & Underground" would Cover strategic Ventilation Planning, including: Theme's 1, 4 (Inc Saline Water), 5, 8 & 9 (also including HV - LV Supply & Operational Supply and Control Devices) together with Full Turn Key Ventilation Installations. Recommended attendees: All Mine Personnel who are involved with & are responsible for Ventilation on site.
PRESENTER: Brian Huff, Sandvik, USA
Workshop 2A: Ventilation considerations for BEVs
- Date
- Monday, 12 August 2024
- Time
- 10:20am - 12:20pm
- Location
-
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth
Battery electric vehicles are predicted by many to play an inevitable key role for future underground mining, replacing both light and heavy diesel fleets. While the ventilation advantages are recognised through reduced heat, gas and diesel particulate emissions, many considerations are required for ventilation design and safety. This workshop guides attendees through different battery types and configurations, operational and safety risks, and ventilation design requirements for recharging, storage and operational field areas to ensure a safe, cost effective and production work environment.
Presenter: David Cliff, University of Queensland, Australia
Workshop 2B: Developing TARPS for spon com
- Date
- Monday, 12 August 2024
- Time
- 10:20am - 12:20pm
- Location
-
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth
This workshop will be a combination of information presentation and workshop participant interaction aimed at developing appropriate TARP triggers and supporting systems for the management of spontaneous combustion risk. The workshop will explore the range of triggers available and their strengths and weaknesses, utilising case studies and laboratory testing. Participants will be encouraged to bring information from their own mines for inclusion in the development process. At the end of the workshop participants will have a good understanding of the scientific process for developing TARP triggers relevant to their mining environment. Further they will understand the limits of such TARP trigger systems and the need to support the TARP process with ancillary processes.
Presenter: Florian Neff, TLT-TURBO, Europe
Workshop 2C: Primary fan interactions and instabilities
- Date
- Monday, 12 August 2024
- Time
- 10:20am - 12:20pm
- Location
-
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth
Fan instability can arise within the mine ventilation network: different primary and booster fans may interfere with each other during a ramp-up, a change in duty, or even a regulator adjustment, potentially leading a given fan to enter its stall regime, rendering it inefficient and increasing its risk of failure. Such instability arises from the variable nature of the mine’s resistance and the complex interconnections between each fan and regulator in the mine ventilation network. As mines expand and incorporate more fans to provide more airflow or pressure, fan instability inevitably increases. However, mine ventilation modelling is performed in steady-state conditions when fan instability is null, and fan selection is conducted in isolation from the other fan influence within the network.
In this workshop, TLT-Turbo describes the origin and the consequences of fan instability emerging from the mine ventilation network. We also present methods to help predict the said instability and suggest strategies to control and prevent it.
Presenters: Dr Martin Griffith & Florian Michelin, Howden Ventsim, Australia
Workshop 3A: Heat modelling in variable conditions using Ventsim
- Date
- Monday, 12 August 2024
- Time
- 1:10pm - 3:10pm
- Location
-
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth
Heat modelling for mines forms an intrinsic part of ventilation planning and design, particularly in hot and cold climate mines where conditions may prevent safe and productive underground work unless mitigating actions are taken to regulate the environment. Many conditions, however, are transient, substantially changing on both a daily basis and a seasonal basis, causing complexity in modelling the likely working conditions. This workshop focuses on dynamic modelling techniques and considerations that assist in simulating and helping understand the variability of conditions. The results can help in designing and planning for appropriate suitably sized infrastructure that reflects the sometimes short-lived atmospheric changes and underground activity that results in variations.
Presenters: Dr Bharath Belle, 61DRAWINGS, Australia; Dr Rao Balusu, CSIRO, Australia; Isaac Mthombeni, CSIR, South Africa; Arend Spath, Explospot Systems Pty Ltd, South Africa/Germany; Sean Muller, RSHQ SIMTARS, Australia
Workshop 3B: PART A: Sabotaging Explosion and Fires in Mines- Promoting "Goods" and Controlling "Bads"
- Date
- Monday, 12 August 2024
- Time
- 1:10pm - 3:10pm
- Location
-
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth
Health and safety at work is the core essential to workers, their families and communities. Mine explosions and fires (including spon com) are catastrophic risks that have operational challenges and controls. The historical events that caused fatal harm to workers and community have purposefully led to prescriptive legislations as a deterrence. Any overlooking patterns of non-compliance may not yet have caused harm but could definitely lead to catastrophic risks. The proposed workshop aims to share the plethora of avenues to sabotage explosion and fires in mines. The presenters of the workshop would be sharing their 13 decades of cumulative international experiences of managing the catastrophic risks in multi-commodities on promoting “Goods” and controlling "Bads." This technical workshop on business of distinctive controlling of "Bads" and promoting of "Goods" is worth attending, understanding and implementing.
The intended attendees of the planned workshop include workers and operators from all mining commodities, ventilation engineers, regulators, researchers, academics and investigators. The workshop share will include practical expert material and control knowledge of both goods and bads gained over experiences of prevention and control of mine fires and explosions using visual friendly learning materials. The workshop will share current practical knowledge tools on how to measure impact of major risk identification and estimation in either information rich or deficient environment. The attendees of the workshop will receive insights on exclusion zones and the latest developments in mine fires, spontaneous combustion and state-of the-art ventilation and explosion engineering control systems.
Presenter: Euler De Souza, AirFinders Inc, Canada
Workshop 3C: Auxiliary ventilation design, modeling and costing considerations
- Date
- Monday, 12 August 2024
- Time
- 1:10pm - 3:10pm
- Location
-
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth
This intensive workshop is designed to provide comprehensive training and tools for the day-to-day planning, design, installation, maintenance, and effective operation and monitoring of auxiliary mine ventilation systems. Reference to case studies is made to demonstrate examples of good practice. Modeling procedures are also introduced and participants will receive a copy of an Auxiliary Ventilation Design Calculator developed for the mining industry to assist engineers and planners with the design of fan and duct systems.
Our main motive is to provide participants with practical and innovative auxiliary ventilation solutions that maximize value and enhance health and safety conditions at the face while introducing proven processes that improve ventilation system efficiency and reduce ventilation energy costs.
Presenter: Alan Loudon, Howden Australia
Workshop 4A: Cooling & refrigeration: Types and equipment selection for underground refrigeration
- Date
- Monday, 12 August 2024
- Time
- 3:30pm - 5:30pm
- Location
-
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth
This workshop will discuss the various different refrigeration plant designs and options, the strengths, weaknesses and costs of each type, the performance considerations in different climates and environments, and the decision process of rental vs purchase vs rent/buy for mine applications.
Presenters: Dr Bharath Belle, 61DRAWINGS, Australia; Dr Rao Balusu, CSIRO, Australia; Isaac Mthombeni, CSIR, South Africa; Arend Spath, Explospot Systems Pty Ltd, South Africa/Germany; Sean Muller, RSHQ SIMTARS, Australia
Workshop 4B: PART B: Sabotaging explosion and fires in mines - Promoting "Goods" and controlling "Bads"
- Date
- Monday, 12 August 2024
- Time
- 3:30pm - 5:30pm
- Location
-
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth
See description in Workshop 3B.
Presenter: Daniel Stinnette, Ventilation Innovation
Workshop 4C: Ventilation audits and surveys, a global perspective
- Date
- Monday, 12 August 2024
- Time
- 3:30pm - 5:30pm
- Location
-
Sofitel Sydney Wentworth
This workshop presents survey practices used around the world and demonstrates practical applications of field measurement techniques used. The presentation shows tips and tricks for maximizing accuracy and efficiency of surveys. Generally, frictional pressure losses in mines are measured using one of two methods in practical mine ventilation surveys. The “Gauge and Tube” method and the barometer method to measure the relative pressures at two points along with a host of other data. Each method has various strengths and weaknesses relative to the other, and each may be more or less applicable based on a variety of considerations. In practice, however, the choice of method is most commonly based on the familiarity and preference of the measurer(s), and the country the mine is based in. This workshop examines the two primary methods, with examples of data reduction techniques to show the relative differences and merits of each method. As an added check, the results of the two methods are then compared with those obtained from a computer simulation of theoretical shaft resistance. The results of these calculations, along with an explanation of the various methods are included, along with some suggestions for when one method might be preferred to the other in practical applications.