Stickler will be the keynote speaker at the event and will kick off the conference, set for July 31 to August 2 at the Lakeview Resort in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Event organiser Steve Tadolini told ILN that the conference is set to host upwards of 225 attendees, including many from Australia.

Some of the presentations will include:

• Longwall Mining in Illinois: A Controversy over Planned Subsidence of Flat Farmland – D. Barkley, Illinois Department of Natural Resources;
• Study on the Dynamic Influences of Longwall Mining in the US on Surface Structures – K. Zimmerman and R. Fritschen, DMT GmbH;
• The Unpredictable Life Cycle of a Coal Pillar – S. Tadolini, NIOSH and P. Zhang, Foundation Coal;
• Stability Mapping as a Tool for Production Planning at Bowie No. 3 Mine – C. Stewart and R. Stone, Bowie Resources; and
• A Practical Solution to Highwall Mining Coal Reserves Sterilized by Auger Mining – M. Amick, Engineering Consulting Services.

For more information on the conference, contact industry veteran Syd Peng at Syd.Peng@mail.wvu.edu