EFFECT OF AUTO COMPRESSION ON VENTILATION SYSTEM OF RARE EARTH

ELEMENTS MINES

The future prospect of rare earth elements mining that has just begin in Malawi is that as time
goes the depth of the mines increase. In this situation the intake air is expected to be influenced
by various factors, namely; auto- compression, surface air temperature (seasonal temperature
variation), heat due to explosive detonation, heat from mechanized equipments, metabolic heat,
heat from broken rock, wall rock heat flow, heat from other source etc.

In Malawi, the mining industry is at its dawn and most of the projects are new and the mining
style is open pit. As time goes this mine will be getting deeper and deeper. So, in order to
address the problem of oppressive climatic conditions at the mines, behaviour of various
parameters affecting the quality of intake air must to be studied for a good ventilation planning
as the depth of the mines and one of the factors to consider is the effect of auto compression.
The paper proposes to conduct a study on the estimation of heat addition to the intake air due
to auto compression.

Auto compression is considered as a source of heat which cannot be diluted by increasing air
circulation in mine. In case of shallow depth mines effect of heat due to auto compression is
considered negligible. However. the deeper the mines get, auto compression of intake air in
shaft raises the temperature affecting the workplace environment. Therefore, consideration of
auto compression on air current as mines get deep is necessary.

When the air is descending it gets compressed by the columns of air and subsequently gains
heat. In dry shaft the air gains heat due to adiabatic compression resulting in addition of sigma
heat to the air current. It is calculated using.

increase in heat content of 1 kg of air

Temperature rise (℃) =
specific heat of air (Cp)
mass × gravitational acceleration × distance
=
specific heat of air(Cp)

Another approach for calculating the temperature of the air in the mine, considering potential
energy of the air in the shaft gets converted to heat energy provided no work is done by the air
descending the shaft, that is assuming the flow is frictionless and no acceleration has happened,
and no heat or moisture is lost or gained by the air, then the compression of the air in the
downcast shaft will be reversible adiabatic. By finding barometric pressure at shaft top the
temperature rise due to auto compression can easily be calculated.
The temperature rise due to auto compression can also be calculated by equating the potential
energy with the enthalpy change in the downcast shaft. Further it is explained that apart from
geothermal effect; air in mines is also heated due to effect auto compression. As the air goes
down a shaft or incline gets compressed by the column of air above, its enthalpy is increased
due to conversion of potential energy (I) to heat energy.

Heat due to auto- compression in vertical shaft is calculated by the formula

q = QρE∆dT

Where q = theoretical heat of auto compression (W), Q = airflow in shaft (m3/s), 𝜌 = air density
(kg/m3) and Δd = elevation change (m).

For planning of a good mine ventilation system, a number of researches show that an estimation
on the effect of auto compression in mine as the get deeper, especially deep than 300 meter, is
very important so that the increase in temperature is calculated and determined because the
increase of rise also varies with the type of rock being mined.