John Rowland has done numerous jobs involving the planned and staged reduction and redistribution of flows during a mine closure phase. This is often over a twelve month period and the goal is to reduce mine flows and pressures to the lowest levels that the mine can be safely operated at and still exceed all statutory requirements.
As the number of men and operating units decrease then so do the ventilation demands.
Proper and rational planning during this phase can lead to very substantial savings in power and maintenance costs at a key economic phase in the lifecycle of the operation.