An experimental mine simulator was constructed which will be used to conduct tracer gas experiments in the laboratory. The test apparatus simulates a mine in a tabular deposit and is modular and simple and can be easily rearranged to represent a variety of mine geometries. The apparatus is appropriate for the use of tracer gases by being both airtight and open-circuit (exhausting to the atmosphere) and by maintaining turbulent flow throughout the model, ensuring the tracer gas is fully dispersed.

The model features ports for injection and sampling of tracer gases, which represent boreholes present in an actual mine. The model is designed, in part, for the practice of tracer gas release and sampling methods in the laboratory. Valves on the apparatus represent ventilation controls, such as stoppings or regulators, or changing resistances in a mine, such an increase in resistance due to a roof fall or a decrease in resistance due to stoppings being destroyed. The relative resistances of airways can be changed by changing the status of the valves to represent different states of the ventilation controls.

The mine simulator should serve as a tool for identifying and investigating novel tracer gases, developing a procedure for performing ventilation surveys using multiple tracer gases, and eventually developing a method for remotely inferring ventilation changes using tracer gases.