Gap851 Final Report Main Body

2Methodology

2.1Literature survey

The research work into rockbursting and seismicity in mines sponsored by SIMRAC and DeepMine has been reviewed by Adams & Van der Heever (2001) and Durrheim (2001), respectively. Ortlepp (2005) has reviewed the global research effort in the field of mine seismology since the early 1980s, recorded in the proceedings of the quadrennial Symposium on Rockbursts and Seismicity in Mines. This report builds on these reviews, with the contributions by the members of the review panel (see 2.3 below) providing an up-to-date international perspective.

Glaser & Doolin (2000) report on a forum held by the American Rock Mechanics Association, where it was concluded that fundamental improvements in in situ rock mass characterisation were of the utmost importance and should be the primary goal of future research.

SIMRAC has taken stock of its efforts before. Several audits and reviews have been commissioned covering projects, themes, mining sectors, and even the entire mining research endeavour.

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  Individual projects: Projects GAP 345 (1997) and GAP 346 (1997) audited the project GAP 017 (Seismology for rockburst prevention, control and prediction, 1996).
  
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  Themes: Project GAP 816a (2002) reviewed past SIMRAC work addressing stope and gully support, and project GAP 816b (2002) reviewed past SIMRAC work addressing seismology and mine layout design.
  
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  Mining sectors: Project GAP 730 (2001) sought to establish the effectiveness of SIMRAC research in improving safety in the gold and platinum sectors by means of interviews with representatives of government, labour, and mining companies, while COL 620 summarises all coal-related work.
  
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  Mining industry: SIM 020905 (postgraduate study, in progress) reviews the evolution of mining research in South Africa.
  

This assessment has a considerably greater scope than any of these earlier studies. Firstly, all rock-related research work conducted by the SIMRAC programme is reviewed in the context of other local and international research programmes. Secondly, this study not only reviews past research, but also seeks to establish a research strategy for the future. Lastly, the report also considers SIMRAC processes used to identify research needs, monitor progress, and transfer knowledge and technology.

2.2Research inventory

All relevant SIMRAC, DeepMine, FutureMine, Coaltech 2020 and PlatMine projects were reviewed and classified according to their content. This represents a vast body of information. SIMRAC has published more than 180 final reports on rock-related projects with another 30-or-so projects in progress, representing well over 500 man-years of effort. The collaborative research programmes have published more than 70 reports. The research reports are catalogued in Appendix A. In addition, a directory of researchers was compiled, indicating their current status (Appendix B), and an inventory of research equipment and facilities was drawn up (Appendix C).

2.3International review panel

A feature of this project is the participation by a panel of international experts to ensure that the assessment is unbiased and benchmarked against global best practice. The criteria for selecting the panel were:

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  Outstanding credentials as researchers and leaders in the international rock engineering community;
  
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  Knowledge of the South African mining scene;
  
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  Knowledge of the international mining scene with respect to trends in technology and research; and
  
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  Sufficient geographic spread to allow the work done under the auspices of SIMRAC to be benchmarked against international best practice.
  

A list of potential members of the review panel was tabled at the meeting of the SIMRAC Rock Engineering Technical Advisory Committee held on 19 May 2004, and the committee members indicated their preferences. All first choice candidates indicated their willingness to participate. They are:

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  Professor Horst Wagner (Austria) is Head of the Department of Mining Engineering at Leoben University. He is also chairman of the Commission for Basic Research on Mineral Raw Materials of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Prof. Wagner has extensive experience of the South African mining sector. He joined the Chamber of Mines Research Organisation in the 1960s, and made significant contributions to rock mechanics research, particularly in the fields of coal and deep gold mining. He served as Director of the Chamber of Mines Research Organisation from 1986 to 1988 and Senior General Manager (Operations) of the Chamber of Mines from 1988 to 1993.
  
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  Professor Peter Kaiser (Canada), President of Laurentian University's Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation (MIRARCO), Professor of Mining Engineering and Chair for Rock Engineering and Ground Control. Professor Kaiser is a specialist in applied research for mining. His particular interests lie in geomechanics, mine design, and applications of new technologies to mining operations in order to increase safety and productivity. He brings extensive experience to this area from both the industrial and academic sectors, having served as consultant to numerous consulting engineers, mines, and public agencies. Dr. Kaiser is the author of approximately 150 technical and scientific publications in the field of geomechanics. He is a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada and of the Canadian Academy of Engineers.
  
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  Professor E T (Ted) Brown (Australia) is a graduate of the Universities of Melbourne (BE 1960; MEngSc 1964), Queensland (PhD 1969) and London (DSc (Eng) 1985). He began his career in the State Electricity Commission of Victoria’s brown coal mining operations. After several years at what became James Cook University in Townsville, he went to the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, in 1975. He was appointed Professor of Rock Mechanics in 1979 and served as Dean of the Royal School of Mines (1983-1986) and Head, Department of Mineral Resources Engineering (1985-1987). In September 1987, Professor Brown returned to Australia as the University of Queensland’s Dean of Engineering. He became Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University in 1990 and Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor in 1996. He retired from that position in 2001 to resume his career in engineering practice as a Senior Consultant with Golder Associates Pty Ltd, and as a research consultant with the University’s Strategic Minerals Institute and the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre. Professor Brown has wide international experience as a researcher, teacher, consultant, and writer on rock mechanics and its applications in the mining, civil engineering and energy resources industries. He is the co-author with Evert Hoek of the book, Underground Excavations in Rock, and with Barry Brady of Rock Mechanics for Underground Mining, the third edition of which was published recently. He is the author of Block Caving Geomechanics published in 2003, and the editor of several other volumes.
  

The reports produced by the members of the International Review Panel are synthesized in the body of the main report, and included verbatim in Appendices E, F, and G.

The project leader is Dr Ray Durrheim, a Fellow in the CSIR Division of Mining Technology. Dr Durrheim conducted research for SIMRAC from 1993 to 1997 (GAP 027, 201 & 414), was manager the DeepMine and FutureMine Collaborative Research Programmes from 1998 to 2002, and was seconded to the Mining and Mineral Sciences Laboratories, Natural Resources Canada, for 2003.