The lecture will be given prior to the Alumni dinner and will address the topic: Regional stability of underground mines – a core risk.

“The history of soft and hard rock underground mining is blemished with regional instabilities of mine workings,” Galvin said. “They can take a number of forms ranging from insidious creep and gradual closure of sections of a mine through to the sudden and unexpected collapse of a whole mine. Regional instabilities still occur on a regular basis throughout the world. Australia has it fair share. As such, they have a significant effect on the quadruple bottom line of business – safety, environment, community acceptance and economics.”

He said that most of the rock mechanics principles which determine regional behaviour of underground workings have been reasonably well established as a result of enquiries into these types of events. This left the question of why regional collapses of underground mine workings continue to occur and their future prevention.

For further information about either the dinner or lecture, please contact Carol Bell on 02 9385 4515 or Bruce Hebblewhite on 02 9385 5160 or email on B.Hebblewhite@unsw.edu.au