Celebrating its 10th year, the two-day event will play host to presenters from Germany, Iran, the UK and USA, as well as feature many Australian papers.

“The international interest on the conference is a clear demonstration of the increasing importance of the conference to mining worldwide,” event organisers told ILN.

Heading up the presentations will be BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal president Collin Bloomfield with a keynote paper entitled Innovation for Success, while Anglo Coal’s Bruce Robertson will speak on the role of the Australian Coal Association Research Program in supporting Australian research.

Among the more technically focused papers, the US National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health’s Chris Mark will give an overview of the global trends in coal mine horizontal stress measurement.

Anglo Coal’s Ismet Cumbulent will provide answers on roadway support design in difficult and critical areas, while consultant Mark Colwell and Russell Frith from the University of New South Wales will present an analytical model for coal mine roof reinforcement.

Ross Seedsman of Seedsman Geotechnics will discuss the importance of calibrating parameters in predicting subsidence at the Mandalong mine in New South Wales.

Under the strata reinforcement and instrumentation banner, papers will be presented on double shearing of the tailgate cable bolt by Jennmar Australia’s Peter Craig and University of Wollongong’s Naj Aziz; non-destruction integrity testing of rock reinforcement by Wouter Hartman and co-authors; and roadway stability monitoring using “telltales” by David Bigby from the UK’s Golder Associates.

Uwe Wyink, from Meyco Global Underground Construction based in Switzerland, together with BASF Construction Chemicals’ Warren Mahoney and John Gelson will present a paper on Meyco TSL, a polymer powder for spray application to improve ground stability in underground coal mines.

On mine gas drainage and outburst control, mine outburst threshold limit values will be reassessed by Wollongong University’s Dennis Black and Naj Aziz, who will analyse more than 4500 items of gas drainage data from eight mines in NSW and Queensland.

Gas recovery enhancement by nitrogen injection from coal will be looked at, while CSIRO researchers will explore the parameters affecting coal seam gas escape through floor and roof strata of a mined area.

On mine ventilation and the environment, Les Lunarsrzewiski of Lunagas will provide his latest model of a coal mine goaf gas predictor, while Basil Beamish and his co-authors will present a number of papers on spontaneous combustion.

Goaf inertisation and sealing by methane will be presented by Cambridge Claassen of Clarence colliery.

On modelling applications and simulation, Terry Medhurst and co-authors will present on 3D geotechnical models for coal and classic rocks based on geophysical strata rating; AMC consultants will speak on mine-scale numerical modelling of longwall operations; Skillpro Services’ David Humphreys and colleagues will present on the computational fluid dynamics simulation of underground coal dust explosions and active explosion barriers; and CSIRO’s Ting Ren will discuss the use of CFD as a tool for solving mine health and safety problems, both on mine gas drainage from goaf areas and longwall dust control.

Minova International’s Verne Mutton and Wollongong University’s Alex Remennikov will use numerical analysis in designing explosion-rated ventilation seals for coal mines, and CSIRO’s Sheng Xue will deal with quantitative prediction of outbursts of coal and gas with coupled numerical simulator SimBurst.

John Grieves, Geoff Nugent and colleagues will discuss mine emergency management and mine rescue with their paper, Improving Emergency Management and Mine Rescue Guidelines – the Next Generation, and past incidents will not be forgotten as the Appin fires of over 30 years ago are reassessed by consultant Bob Kininmonth.

A special technical case study will be presented by Ellton Group’s Mark Elliott on the required design changes at the Wongawilli mine conveying system upgrade.

The conference is sponsored by BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal, Peabody Energy Australia, Anglo Coal Australia, Minova International, Jennmar Australia, Ellton Group and BASF Australia.

The conference is organised by the University of Wollongong, the Illawarra branch of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and the Mine Managers Association of Australia.

Further information can be found at www.uow.edu.au/conferences/coal_2010/index.html