Event co-chairman and University of Nevada-Reno mining engineering professor Pierre Mousset-Jones told Coal USA Magazine that the conference was a function of the Underground Ventilation Committee, a group supported by the Coal and Mining and Exploration Divisions of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME). He is heading up the 2008 event alongside Keith Wallace of California firm Mine Ventilation Services.

About 120 abstracts were received, of which about 90 were accepted, Mousset-Jones said. A special poster session will be also held with about 10 more.

Exhibiting vendors will also be part of the conference.

"It will offer an excellent opportunity for mine ventilation experts, professionals and students to gather for a valuable exchange of information and professional development," he said.

The itinerary includes one session each on: heat and humidity/mine air refrigeration, general ventilation design and monitoring, methane, mine fans and tunnel ventilation. There will be two sessions available in the areas of dust control, coal spontaneous combustion, ventilation and the MINER Act, numerical modeling and ventilation planning in coal mining.

Some subjects on the schedule have a trio of classes available, including diesel emission control and measurement; mine fires and emergency control; and ventilation planning for metal/nonmetal mines. Optional workshops on respirable dust control, heat illness and heat stress measurement, diesel particulate matter and gasses reduction technologies, and psychometry, mine heat loads and climate will be offered throughout the three days of the event.