This column was originally published in the December 2014 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.
Delegates from around the world share deep mining solutions
Deep Mining 2014, held in Sudbury September 16 to 18, was a big hit, attracting 302 attendees from around the world.
“It was an overwhelming success,” said conference co-chair and Laurentian University associate professor Marty Hudyma. “We really didn’t know what to expect in view of the fact that the industry is in a downturn. We were optimistic that we would get 200 delegates, and 250 would have been beyond our wildest dreams, so we were ecstatic with 302.”
According to Hudyma, approximately half of the delegates were from outside the Sudbury area, including contingents from Australia, South America, Europe and South Africa.
Deep Mining 2014, the seventh International Conference on Deep and High Stress Mining, was hosted by the Australian Centre for Geomechanics. It attracted 62 papers on a wide variety of topics including ground control, seismicity, ventilation, mine design and logistics.
“The feedback I got from delegates was that there were a lot of very good case studies on deep mining and the challenges they have to deal with,” said Hudyma.
“There are three real challenges. The first is the ground conditions and the stresses are getting more difficult, so we have to modify our mining practices to be able to work effectively and safely at great depth.