LATEST NEWS!

The ACG are delighted to announce that Dr Gideon Chitombo of the Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland, will be giving a keynote address at Caving 2010.

Stratacrete Pty Ltd have come on board as the Principal Sponsor of the Symposium.

Second International Symposium on Block and Sublevel Caving

20–22 April 2010, Australia

Initiated by the Australian Centre for Geomechanics, the Universidad of de los Andes, Chile, the University of Toronto, Canada, and the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, the ACG looks forward to hosting the Second International Symposium on Block and Sublevel Caving for the first time in Australia. It is intended for this symposium to run every four years, in between the MassMin Symposia (Luleå 2008, Sudbury 2012).

The growing popularity of caving methods around the world is largely due to the very low production cost and the intrinsic safety associated with this mining approach. It is often the only viable mining method for some of the lower grade massive orebodies that are becoming too deep for open pit mining.

Strategically, most medium and large mining companies are operating or planning to operate a caving mine. Codelco El Teniente mines in Chile and the LKAB Kiruna mine in Sweden are among the largest and most famous caving operations in the world. Australia’s leading caving operations include Rio Tinto's Northparkes mines, BHP Billiton Nickel West's Perseverance mine and Newcrest's Telfer and Ridgeway gold mines.

Click here to view the Brochure.

Symposium Themes

Open pit to underground mining transition

Caving mechanics

Fragmentation

Ground support

Rockburst and seismic risk

Block and sublevel caving design and layouts

Undercutting

Case histories

Symposium Chair

YVES POTVIN
Chair
Australian Centre for Geomechanics, Australia

Yves Potvin is the director of the Australian Centre for Geomechanics and a professor at the University of Western Australia (UWA). Prior to joining UWA, Yves spent more than 10 years in the mining industry. He was previously the mining research manager at Mount Isa Mines in Queensland and the rock mechanics programme manager at the Noranda Technology Centre, Canada.

Yves’ recent research work focuses on rockburst and mine induced seismicity, ground support of underground excavations and cave mining mechanics. Since 2004, Yves has co-edited three books and four symposium proceedings.

Call for Abstracts

Intending authors are requested to prepare and submit their abstracts by 31 August 2009 to the Australian Centre for Geomechanics via acg@acg.uwa.edu.au.

All accepted written papers will be peer reviewed and published in the Second International Symposium on Block and Sublevel Caving 2010 Proceedings.