To be held at the Cypress Lakes Resort in the NSW Hunter Valley, bookings so far are out-stripping expectations, organisers IIR said.

“The program is packed with presentations, providing delegates with practical tools to save money in their longwall operations,” IIR said.

The program covers a range of topics, including operational efficiency case studies, safety and strata control, new mine installations and technical innovation.

Selected highlights include:

South African presentation on the world shortwall record set at Matla’s number 3 mine, Chris Silver, production manager and Heine Booysen, mine manager, No. 3 Mine, Matla Colliery.

Greg Pawley, operations manager, Xstrata Beltana No I Mine will talk on High capacity production at Xstrata Beltana No I.

Phil McNamara, longwall superintendent, United Colliery, Xstrata discusses Improved efficiency through process optimisation at United Colliery

Bob Miller, general mine manager - Springvale & Angus Place, Centennial Coal outlines increased productivity and risk control at Springvale & Angus Place

Darren Nicholls, manager underground operations, Baal Bone, Xstrata (formerly Operations Manager at Newlands, Xstrata) will describe the use of the Tomlinson Boiler to control spontaneous combustion potential at Newlands Southern Underground Mine

Glen Lewis, general manager, Eastern Underground Operations, Xstrata Coal, goes Back to basics: re-examining the fundamental challenges of longwall mining

Talking on new mine installations will be Ray Johnson, general manager, Tahmoor Coal, Austral Coal, Guy Mitchell, manager – underground strategy and development, BHP Coal and Tim Hobson, general manager, Anglo Coal (Dartbrook Management).

Discussing how to improving longwall face equipment reliability is Professor Hal Gurgenci, vice president - Research and Education, CRC Mining, head of Division - Mechanical Engineering, The University of Queensland.

Mick Kelly, Mining Manager, CSIRO Exploration and Mining David Hainsworth, Principal Research Engineer, CSIRO Exploration and Mining overview the status of the ACARP Landmark Longwall Automation project.

The program concludes with Nick Wills, director, NBW Mining, on the elusive subject of The Perfect Longwall.

Further information on the conference can be obtained from IIR at info@iir.com.au