Coal 2008 will return to its original home at the University of Wollongong on February 14-15.

Twenty seven papers will be delivered over seven sessions by experts from NSW and Queensland as well as China, India and Iran.

Jointly organised by Illawarra branch of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, the University of Wollongong, and Mine Managers Association of Australia, this year's conference has the theme "towards improvement in production with safety".

The conference will address various issues related to improvement in mine production, productivity and safety in surface and underground mining operations.

The preliminary line-up of technical papers include:

• Crinum mine - 15 longwalls in weak roof. What did we learn about supporting the ground? D Payne
• Effect of grouting on longwall mining through faults. T Medhurst and M Bartlett
• Gas drainage practices and challenges in coal mines of China. K Wang and S Xue
• Identification of spontaneous combustion prone zones in longwall top coal caving goafs. J Xie, S Xue and W Cheng
• Geological and geotechnical influences on the cavability and drawability of top coal in Longwall Top Coal Caving mining. P Humphries and B Poulsen
• Underground atmosphere real time personal respirable dust and diesel particulate matter direct monitoring. Stewart Gillies and H Wei Wu
• Innovative CDF model ling to improve dust control in longwalls. T Ren and R Balusu
• The limitations of the observational method for roof support and subsidence management in high production longwalls. RW Seedsman
• Moisture content impact on the self-heating rate of a highly reactive sub-bituminous coal. BB Beamish, and TJ Schultz
• Managing roof control problems on a longwall face. R Trueman, G Lyman and A Cocker
• Polymer-based alternative to steel mesh for coal mine strata reinforcement. C Lukey, G Spinks, E Baafi, I Porter and J Nemcik
• Development of a site specific self-heating rate prediction equation for a high volatile bituminous coal. Basil Beamish and Wade Sainsbury
• Analysis and research on influencing factors of coal reservoir permeability. X Li, B Nie, T Ren
• The Development of Recovery Roadways at Appin Mine. B Elvy and R Doyle
• Recent developments in pre-driven recovery road design. R Thomas, S Tadolini and T Barczak
• Coal pillar loading mechanisms and Progress in Pillar Design. I Canbulat and D Hill

• Improving UIS gas drainage in underground coal mines. D Black and N Aziz

• Hydraulic fracturing in underground mines with high stress conditions. D Black, T Meyer, N Forsyth, R Jeffrey, R Seeley, D Benson, N Aziz
• Application of financial risk analysis for project evaluation of a large coal mine. M Zare and F Sereshki

• The effect of nitrogen on the gas indicators of spontaneous combustion of coal.

• Hydrogen is one of the key indicators of spontaneous combustion. W Hitchcock, B Beamish and D Humphrey
• Geotechnical design at a mine site level - we have no choice. R Firth and M Colwell
• An approach to addressing explosive related accidents by implementing strategic training. G Sen and G Downs
• Tailgate 802 - Grasstree Mine: A case study in pragmatic roof support design. Mark Col, R Frith and G Reed Wall
• The effect of corrosion protection coatings on bond capacity reduction for rock bolts. M Moosavi and S Karimi
• Risk Management in Mines; the Six Sigma Way. SK Sinha
• An empirical approach in prediction of the roof rock strength in underground coal mines. SR Torabi, F Sereshki, M Zare, M Javanshir
• Status of UOW coal mining websites. N Aziz, R Caladine, W Wilbers and L Time
• Optimisation of bolt profile configuration for effective load transfer mechanism. N Aziz, H Jalaifar and S Sinclair
• Queensland's Underground Coal Mine Gas Monitoring. D Brady