ABSTRACT
The Henderson mine is a panel cave mine located in the state of Colorado, about 50 miles west of Denver. The Henderson mine ventilation system has undergone multiple changes over time in response to the dynamic airflow needs of the mine. These changing requirements resulted from transitions from one panel to the next, as well as varying design and production requirements. In recent years, the mine has transitioned from long continuous panels, to smaller areas more closely resembling block caves. The average production rate can vary in a short time from 20,000 to 30,000 tons per day and can occur on multiple extraction (production) levels. The ventilation system must be robust enough to accommodate these variable production rates and the associated varying development rates, as well as mining on multiple levels simultaneously. Henderson’s ventilation system is critical to safe and productive mining and is designed to effectively meet the mine’s evolving requirements. This paper explains the ventilation designs of the different production panels of Henderson mine, how the ventilation designs have changed over time, and the advantages and disadvantages of the ventilation design used for each production panel. This paper also discusses the challenges that led to the changes and modifications made to previous ventilation designs in order to optimize the new ventilation systems for the various production panels.
