Life of Mine Ventilation Planning at Diavik
Mr Robert D Clarke ( - Rio Tinto - Diavik Diamond Mines Inc.), Prof Euler De Souza ( - Queen's University)
A framework for ventilation planning, with particular focus on planning to the end of mine life, was developed for use at the Diavik Diamond Mine. Diavik has been an underground operation since 2012 and has a mine life of only 13 years. With only eight years remaining the mine will go through some fundamental milestones before closure. These milestones include the closing of two orebodies, leaving a single orebody for the final three years of mine life. A significant change to the ventilation system will be required to support the transition to the final configuration. The framework achieved this result through the reconciliation of the production plan with the ventilation plan by creating design acceptability criteria, and using the value-ease analysis method to narrow down relatively quickly the ideas generated to two options for detailed assessment and economic analysis. For Diavik, the framework was successfully utilized by the mine engineers to select a cost effective ventilation plan based on twinning an exhaust raise and re-equipping an old drift to the pit as an exhaust path with a new fan chamber.
