Ismet Canbulat of Anglo American Metallurgical Coal received the BBUGS practitioner of the year award for 2013.

Canbulat’s achievements include contributions to the industry by lecturing at UNSW, advising and reviewing research students, monitoring industry research through ACARP and developing a suite of analytical geotechnical calculators for Anglo American.

BBUGS member presentation of the year went to Jason Emery of Anglo American Metallurgical Coal for his presentation on the spin to stall resin bolting system.

James Mason, also of Anglo American Metallurgical Coal, received the attendance award based on a 24-month rolling average.

BBUGS chairman Michael Melville said: “It’s fantastic to see BBUGS continue to grow and generate interest among geotechnical engineers, and product and service providers across the industry.

“We’ve seen record attendances and sponsorship levels in 2013 with our keynote speaker format winding to a close.

“2014 promises to be an exciting year for the society as we hit the five-year anniversary and kick the year off with the introduction of a scholarship program for post-graduate geotechnical engineering students.”

A record attendance viewed 11 presentations, ranging from a summary of recent ACARP projects on resin testing standards from Peter Craig and Naj Aziz, to product development including new resin shotcrete applications in coal and geofabrics.

Other awards included best keynote presentation of the past two years, won by Bruce Hebblewhite from UNSW for his discussion on thick seam mining, with Jim Galvin and Winton Gale highly commended.