Organised jointly by the Illawarra Branch of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, the University of Wollongong and the Mine Managers Association of Australia, next year’s conference will review progress in removing development constraints from both surface and underground mining.

Surface mining operations face issues of environment- and slope-stability, while issues affecting development may include proximity to towns, and advances in the control of noise and vibration.

From the underground mining perspective, roadway development constraints will be examined. Topics will include the evolution of roadway development rates and safety; the use of extended cut mining in Australian coal measures; the impact of wider walls on development; and the environmental impacts of wider walls.

Organisers have invited paper abstracts on these topics from mine operators, OEMs, suppliers, contractors and consultants, to be submitted by December 2 2005. (See contact details below).

Topics may include:

face versus underground mining

Slope-stability and slope stabilisation

Environmental issues for sustainable coal mining

Gas drainage and outburst control

Subsidence impacts of underground mining

Recovery from falls on the faces and in the gateroads

Headings development

Equipment and machinery

Regulatory aspects of sustainable mining

Ground control and risk management

A one-day workshop on subsidence prediction will be held immediately prior to the conference. This will cover the use of empirical, analytical and numerical methods for predicting subsidence deformations, and particularly the use of the influence function method. The workshop will be limited to 20 participants.

Contact:

Naj Aziz (chairman and convenor)

School of Civil, Mining & Environmental Engineering

University of Wollongong

Wollongong, NSW 2522

Tel: (02) 4221 3449

Fax: (02) 42213 238

Email: naj@uow.edu.au