Two main sustainability topics for the mining industry is air quality and energy efficiency. Someone who has given both topics a lot of thought is Diana Baldeon. She is a product manager for ventilation on demand and has recently completed a study on air quality improvements in a Brazilian gold mine.
Last but not least, Diana Baldeon is a speaker together with Johannes Hansson at Bergdagarna 2019 in Stockholm.
We had a few questions for them, to warm up for the event.
With the perspective of your topic – What do you see are the main challenges facing the industry?
Diana: I think that environmental controls and energy conservation is something that is getting more and more attention across all industries – not only mining and construction Whichever industry you are in – I think that the challenge is to see the whole perspective. Reducing costs has little value if people doesn’t have a good working environment. The challenge is to address both costs and people.
Johannes: From a technical perspective – the way to achieve this is to create a flexible ventilation system where you can increase or reduce the ventilation in a controlled way without sacrifice the air quality.
What is it that we can look forward to learn from your presentation?
Johannes: You will learn how you can improve both energy savings and air quality by adapting fan speed through measuring the air quality underground.
Diana: We will also shed some light into the changing role in how suppliers, specifically within technology need to answer to customer needs faster than ever before. We also need to do this with high quality while at the same time maximizing the care of people, safety, and the environment.
During our talk we will show an example on how Epiroc developed a customized on-demand ventilation system – a simple system that provide good results.
What are the differences between here and Brazil when it comes to these challenges?
Diana: Taking in consideration that we are talking of world class companies, the challenges are the same. First of all take care of the people and then start saving costs. The main difference may be only in terms of regulations.
Johannes: From a technical standpoint – the big difference is the air temperature making refrigeration a much bigger issue in Brazil compared to here.
Finally, what are your recommendations to people interested in learning more?
Diana: First of all, you should come and listen to our presentation. Afterwards you can meet both me and Johannes will be in the Epiroc stand at the exhibition. We will be happy to see how we could find solutions together.
Johannes: My recommendation would be to study your own ventilation. How is it functioning and what improvements could you be making?
Thank you Diana and Johannes for this interview and the information!
Diana and Johannes presentation is on Wednesday, march 20th during Bergdagarna 2019 in Stockholm.
