Mining Institute, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Perm, Russia

L. Yu. Levin, Deputy Director, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, Professor, aerolog_lev@mail.ru

E. L. Grishin, Head of Air Safety Sector of Aerology and Thermophysics Department, Candidate of Engineering Sciences

Nornickel’s Polar Division, Norilsk, Russia
T. P. Darbinyan, Director of Mining Practice Department, Candidate of Engineering Sciences
P. R. Shevchenko, Leading Engineer of Department of Geotechnical Supervision of Mining at Center for Geodynamic Safety

Nornickel’s Polar Division (Company) carries out a regular-basis research in the field of mine ventilation and succeeds in enhancing efficiency of mineral extraction with the simultaneous improvement of safety of mining operations. In the conditions of highlevel mechanization of mining operations at Company’s mines equipped with internal combustion engine-driven machines, it becomes highly important to analyze air risks and their reduction during mining. At the same time, introduction of new developments should promote enhanced economic efficiency of production. The authors review the long-term research into mine ventilation at the Company. Advanced engineering solutions on improvement of ventilation quality in mines are described. In particular, the article presents the studies on the mine air composition dynamics in case of sequential ventilation of workspaces of machines driven by internal combustion engines when they move along the main air roadways and operate in production areas. It is shown that organizational and engineering arrangements make it possible to ensure the air quality in conformity with the industrial safety standards in all mine openings and in main areas of travel and operation of the internal combustion engine-driven machines. Safety and economic efficiency of blind stoping is investigated and justified. Specifics of blind stopes consists in impossibility of laying a ventilation pipeline in the stopes because of unavailability of roof support and roof control in such stopes. The dynamic measurements and the data of modeling of air processes in blind stopes with the cross-section more than 60 m² are presented. The measures are developed to ensure compliance with the air quality standards at workpoints of operators of the internal combustion engine-driven machines. The solutions are proposed to provide allowable level of air risk at the preserved efficiency of economic performance.
The study was carried out with partially financial support from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation under state assignment (No. NIOKTR: 124020500030-7).

1. Brodny J., Tutak M. Applying computational fluid dynamics in research on ventilation safety during underground hard coal mining: A systematic literature review. Process Safety and Environmental Protection. 2021. Vol. 151. pp. 373–400.

2. Yi H., Kim M., Lee D., Park J. Applications of computational fluid dynamics for mine ventilation in mineral development. Energies. 2022. Vol. 15, Iss. 22. ID 8405.
3. You M., Li S., Li D., Xu S. Applications of artificial intelligence for coal mine gas risk assessment. Safety Science. 2021. Vol. 143. ID 105420.
4. Semin M., Kormshchikov D. Application of art ificial intelligence in mine ventilation: A brief review. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. 2024. Vol. 7. ID 1402555.
5. Szlązak N., Obracaj D., Swolkień J. Enhancing safety in the Polish high-methane coal mines: An overview. Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration. 2020. Vol. 37, No. 2. pp. 567–579.
6. Yang B., Yao H., Wang F. A review of ventilation and environmental control of underground spaces. Energies. 2022. Vol. 15, Iss. 2. ID 409.
7. Shadrin A. V., Teleguz A. S. Fundamentals of creating a subsystem for the forecast of outburst hazard of the multifunctional safety system of a coal mine. Bezopasnost Truda v Promyshlennosti. 2021. No. 7. pp. 48–53.
8. Skopintseva O. V., Balovtsev S. V. Air quality control in coal mines based on gas monitoring statistics. MIAB. 2021. No. 1. pp. 78–89.
9. Balovtsev S. V. Monitoring of aerological risks of accidents in coal mines. Mining Science and Technology. 2023. Vol. 8, No. 4. pp. 350–359.
10. Shriwas M., Pritchard C. Ventilation monitoring and control in mines. Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration. 2020. Vol. 37, Iss. 4. pp. 1015–1021.
11. Popov M. D., Grishin E. L., Zhikharev S. Ya., Shalimov A. V. Sequential ventilation risks in mineral accessing with motor roads and declines. Gornyi Zhurnal. 2023. No. 11. pp. 49–56.
12. Zaitsev A. V., Trushkova N. A. Recirculating ventilation in the presence of gas emission source and internal air leaks in operating space. MIAB. 2022. No. 3. pp. 34–46.
13. Nakariakov E. V., Grishin E. L., Levin L. Yu. Ventilation of large section blind headings under conditions of changing ore load size. Bulletin of the Tomsk Polytechnic University, Geo Assets Engineering. 2024. Vol. 335, No. 9. pp. 51–60.
14. Semin M. A., Grishin E. L., Levin L. Yu., Zaitsev A. V. Automated ventilation control in mines. Challenges, state of the art, areas for improvement. Journal of Mining Institute. 2020. Vol. 246. pp. 623–632.
15. Tran-Valade T., Allen C. Ventilation-on-demand key consideration for the business case. Proceeding of the Toronto 2013 CIM Conference. Toronto, 2013.
16. Wallace K., Prosser B., Stinnette J. D. The practice of mine ventilation engineering. International Journal of Mining Science and Technology. 2015. Vol. 25, Iss. 2. pp. 165–169.
17. Kolesov E. V., Semin M. A., Kormshc hikov D. S. Development of an algorithm for solving the air distribution inverse problem in a mine ventilation network based on the Tikhonov regularization. Izvestiya Tulskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Nauki o Zemle. 2024. No. 4. pp. 722–737.
18. Semin M., Levin L. Mathematical modeling of air distribution in mines considering different ventilation modes. Mathematics. 2023. Vol. 11, Iss. 4. ID 989.