The mine counter-rotating fan (MCRF) is important in tunnel construction and is also widely used for ventilation in mining. The need to improve the performance of MCRF systems has been attracting the interest of researchers. An MCRF is composed of two vane rotors that rotate in opposite directions. We propose a novel adaptive variable-speed (AVS) control method to improve the performance of an MCRF system. The proposed method is based on the concept of adaptively controlling the speed of the second vane rotor according to changes in the working conditions of the whole fan system. To evaluate the performance of our proposed AVS control method, experiments were performed using various sensors to detect pressure and mass flow rates when using our newly designed MCRF system. Results show that, with the proposed AVS control method, the problem of the rotor output torque rising and falling markedly during large and small mass flows, respectively, is overcome. Furthermore, the problems of overload and a low blocking margin are solved. As a result, the overall pressure increase and performance of the whole fan system are improved.