The symposium will be held in Aachen, Germany, on June 7-8 2006. The first Rapid Mine Development symposium was held five years ago and was attended by 500 international participants.

The Australian contingent at this year’s symposium is a strong one, with BHP Billiton first off the ranks looking at hydroscaling technology for rapid drift development.

The University of New South Wales’ Bruce Hebblewhite will look at longwall development in thick seams, followed by University of Queensland speaker Gideon Chitombo looking at the “15 million tonne project”.

RAG Coal will also broach the topic of thick seams.

China boasts some interesting speakers looking at top coal caving and a case study of rock stability in large-scale underground mining.

Two universities from Canada will be speaking on cemented paste backfill for underground support and key considerations for rapid underground developments. Fellow Canadian company Minarco will look at safe rapid drifting.

On the home front, symposium holders RWTH Aachen will speak on new developments in underground mines and automation.

Local Deutsche Steunkohle AG will present 12 papers looking at an array of topics, including an automated diesel powered monorail, ground control and applied geotechnique in galleries, application of Hilti roof bolts, management systems, and maintenance.

Eickhoff Bergbautechnik will present on the next generation of shearers, whilst GHH Fahrzeuge will look at the work that low profile LHDs have done in Southern Africa.

Voest Alpine will address the business side with technological solutions to improve customer processes and Becker Mining Systems and Electronics will look at underground communication.

For a full list of paper please see http://www.aims.rwth-aachen.de/