NHEET
Natural Heat Exchange Engineering Technology for Mines
MIRARCO Mining Innovation’s NHEET project set to kick-off on January 29, 2020
MIRARCO Mining Innovation is excited to announce the start of its Natural Heat Exchange Engineering Technology (NHEET) project.
The project’s goal is to leverage previous collaborative research between MIRARCO and Vale on the natural heat exchange system at Vale’s Creighton Mine, to determine how the benefits of this system can be replicated at other mine sites.
This exciting partnership with Laurentian University, CanmetMINING, and Cambrian College/OCE has received over $1.8M in funding commitments from industry and government.
Background
Vale’s Creighton Mine has a unique natural heat exchange system that has been in operation for over 50 years, providing both heating and cooling of ventilating air. Due to this natural heat exchange, mining is carried out at Creighton to a depth of 2.5 km without any artificial refrigeration, and is projected to continue to a depth of 3 km. Vale and MIRARCO have worked collaboratively over several years to better characterize and operate the Creighton system.
Replicating these benefits would displace the capital and operating costs of a refrigeration plant and heating system, while also reducing the use of electricity and natural gas. This results in both environmental and financial benefits.

Contact:
For more information on NHEET project, please contact
Email: info@mirarco.org
Alex Hutchison, NHEET Project Lab Manager
Tel: (705) 6751151 x.5111
Email: ahutchison@mirarco.org
Sponsorship Opportunities
For a successful outcome, it’s important for us to have extensive input from participating mine operators. If you are interested in becoming a project sponsor, either through monetary or in-kind contributions, please Join Us!