With depletion of shallow deposits, the number of underground mines expected to reach more than 3 km depth during their lifetime is growing. Although surface cooling plants are mostly effective in mine air-conditioning, usually secondary cooling units are needed below 2 km depth. This need emerges due to the elevated thermal impacts caused by auto-compression of mine air as well as heat emissions from strata and mine machinery. As a result, in cold climates, like Canada, ultra-deep mines need their secondary underground cooling plants running year-round while the intake air must be heated to protect the sensitive machinery and liners from freezing during the winter season. To cool mine air, horizontal bulk-air-conditioners with direct spray cooling systems are commonly used due to their high performance. Conventionally, sprayed water in bulk-air-coolers are mechanically circulated and refrigerated in coupled refrigeration plants. This set up can be transformed to a natural cooling/heating process by resurfacing the warm underground bulk-air-cooler spray water for mine air heating on the surface and re-sinking the chilled water for cooling in the underground bulk air coolers. This could significantly cut-down the fossil-fuel consumption in burners for mine air pre-conditioning and refrigeration cost when applicable. This paper presents an anonymous real-life example to study the feasibility of the proposed idea for an ultra-deep Canadian mine.

随着浅层矿床的枯竭，预计在其使用寿命期间达到3公里以上深度的地下矿井的数量正在增加。尽管地表冷却设备在矿山空调中最有效，但是通常需要在2 km深度以下使用辅助冷却设备。由于矿山空气的自动压缩以及地层和矿山机械产生的热量引起的热冲击升高，因此产生了这种需求。结果，在像加拿大这样的寒冷气候中，超深矿井需要全年运行的二级地下冷却设备，同时必须对进气进行加热，以保护敏感的机械和衬板在冬季不结冰。为了冷却矿井空气，由于其高性能，通常使用带有直接喷雾冷却系统的卧式大容量空调。按照惯例，大容量空气冷却器中的喷射水在耦合制冷设备中进行机械循环和冷冻。通过将温暖的地下散装空气冷却器喷水换成地面上用于矿井空气加热的表面水，然后重新冷却冷冻水以在地下散装空气冷却器中进行冷却，可以将该设置转换为自然冷却/加热过程。在适用的情况下，这可以显着减少用于矿井空气预处理的燃烧器中的化石燃料消耗和制冷成本。本文提供了一个匿名的真实示例，以研究提出的想法对加拿大超深矿的可行性。通过将温暖的地下散装空气冷却器喷水换成地面上用于矿井空气加热的表面水，然后重新冷却冷冻水以在地下散装空气冷却器中进行冷却，可以将该设置转换为自然冷却/加热过程。在适用的情况下，这可以显着减少用于矿井空气预处理的燃烧器中的化石燃料消耗和制冷成本。本文提供了一个匿名的真实示例，以研究提出的想法对加拿大超深矿的可行性。通过将温暖的地下散装空气冷却器喷水换成地面上用于矿井空气加热的表面水，然后重新冷却冷冻水以在地下散装空气冷却器中进行冷却，可以将该设置转换为自然冷却/加热过程。在适用的情况下，这可以显着减少用于矿井空气预处理的燃烧器中的化石燃料消耗和制冷成本。本文提供了一个匿名的真实示例，以研究提出的想法对加拿大超深矿的可行性。