Mine ventilation planning using trackless diesel equipment is well known in the industry. Battery Electrical Vehicle (BEV's) type equipment is increasingly replacing diesel vehicles underground and different ventilation design methodologies need to be evaluated for safety and health of workers. Planning further evaluate the heat loads of equipment to counter their negative impact on the ventilation system. It is therefore important to evaluate the overall ventilation system when comparing Diesel vs BEV's thereby accounting for other aspects such as blasting and re-entry periods for the mine including multi-blast development ends. In general, is it anticipated that replacing diesel vehicles with BEV's will imply reduced air quantity in a mine, therefore contributing positively towards overall mine power and an improved return on an investment. BEV's and other types such as trolley assisted vehicles all fall within the heat and airflow reduction application philosophy and the ventilation planning needs to be addressed to ensure designs don't under-or-over-estimate their positive contribution in underground mines as we always need to determine the in-mine heat load for shallow and deep mines to ascertain compliance with design parameters. This paper elaborates on ventilation design parameters for comparison with diesel vs BEV application.
