Gap851 Final Report Main Body

E – Report: Prof. E. T. Brown

Professor E T (Ted) Brown 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 careers 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. He is a Director of Queensland’s State-owned railways corporation, Queensland Rail, Chairman of the Board of QR’s subsidiary, Interail Australia Pty Ltd, and a member of the South East Queensland Regional Electricity Council.

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.

Professor Brown served as President of the International Society for Rock Mechanics from 1983 to 1987. He is a Foreign Member of The Royal Academy of Engineering, UK, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. On Australia Day 2001, he was appointed a Companion in the Order of Australia, the highest level in the national honours system, for “services to the engineering profession as a world expert in rock mechanics and to scholarship through promotion of the highest academic and professional standards.” He was awarded a Centenary Medal by the Australian Government in 2003, and the John Jaeger Memorial Award of the Australian Geomechanics Society in 2004.

BENCHMARKING OF AUSTRALIAN AND SIMRAC MINING ROCK-RELATED RESEARCH

1. 
   Purpose
   

As part of the process of benchmarking SIMRAC rock-related research against international practice, this sub-report provides a brief account of the organisation, funding, nature and achievements of mining rock-related research in Australia. This research is then compared, in general terms, with that carried out in South Africa through the SIMRAC program since 1991. The account given here of the development, organisation and achievements of Australian mining rock-related research draws heavily on previous accounts prepared by the writer (Brown 1991, 1992, 1999, 2002, 2004a, Golder Associates 2001, 2002, Hood & Brown 1999).

In Australia, mining rock-related research is taken to be part of the broader engineering discipline of geomechanics of which mining geomechanics forms part (Brown 1992, 2004a). In fact, the term rock-related research is rarely used in Australia with rock mechanics (or, more strictly, mining rock mechanics) or rock engineering being used more commonly. Accordingly, the terms mining geomechanics and mining rock mechanics will be used at times in this account.

A particular feature of Australia which it shares to some extent with Canada, is that the Commonwealth of Australia which came into being only in 1901, is a federation of six previously existing States and two Territories. As a result, there are State and Territory as well as Commonwealth Governments. Similarly, there are State and Territory regulatory and mining industry organisations as well as Commonwealth bodies. In an interesting arrangement, a considerable majority of the country’s major universities are established under State Acts and are responsible to the relevant State Parliaments, but are funded by, and have reporting responsibilities to, the Commonwealth. Consequences of the country’s political structure and of its physical size, are that many activities are State-based rather than being national, and that there has been less inter-State cooperation than might have been expected or considered desirable (Golder Associates 2002).

2. The Australian minerals industry

The Australian minerals industry is large and diverse. It accounts for about 8.5% of Australia’s GDP of approximately $A 570 billion (in 2003), or some $A 50 b annually. It is also Australia’s biggest export earner, being responsible for around 28% of all Australian exports. In each of 2001-02 and 2002-03, the total value of mineral exports was about $A 45 b, excluding petroleum and gas (ABARE 2004). There is some difficulty in comparing annual production and export values internationally because of recent volatility in currency exchange rates and so Australian dollars will be used here. In August 2004, the Australian minerals industry employed 96,000 people.

Australia produces a large number of the metals and minerals, including energy minerals, required by modern industry and society, some of them in large quantities. In terms of value, and again excluding petroleum and gas products, its major minerals products are probably (in alphabetical order) alumina and aluminium, bauxite, coking coal, copper, diamonds, gold, iron ore, lead, manganese, mineral sands, nickel, silver, thermal coal, uranium oxide and zinc. In 2002-03, Australia’s exports of alumina and aluminium, coal, copper, gold, iron ore and steel, nickel and zinc each exceeded $A 1 b (ABARE 2004).

Coal is mined mainly by open pit and by underground longwall methods. The large iron ore mines in the Pilbara region of Western Australia are open pits. The large copper mines use underground open stoping methods of one type or another (Mount Isa, Olympic Dam) or block caving (Northparkes). Gold is mined by both open pit and underground methods (including open stoping in Western Australia and sublevel caving at Ridgeway, New South Wales). The gold bearing orebodies and the mining methods used are quite different from the tabular orebodies and the underground mining methods used in the deep level gold mines of South Africa. In 2001-02 and 2002-03, Australian gold production was 346 and 386 tonnes of refined metal, respectively (ABARE 2004).

In 2002-03, there were 12 fatalities in the Australian minerals industry; 11 in the metalliferous sector (five open pit and six underground), one in the extractive sector, and none in the coal sector (Minerals Council of Australia 2003). The writer was involved in investigations of two of the open pit fatalities. In 2001-02, there were seven fatalities, two of which were in the underground metalliferous sector with there being one each in the underground coal, open pit coal, open pit metalliferous, extractive and smelting/refining sectors (Minerals Council of Australia 2002). The nature and frequency of rock falls and the frequency of injuries and fatalities from this source are obviously different from those of the South African industry. Much has been done in recent years to reduce these rates (Lang & Stubley 2004, Potvin & Nedin 2004).

The Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (the number of lost time injuries per million hours worked) in the Australian minerals industry, has declined annually over the last decade. In 1993-94, the industry’s overall LTIFR was 27, but it had reduced to seven in 2002-03 (Minerals Council of Australia 2003).

3. Australian mining rock-related research

3.1 Organisation and funding

3.1.1 Overview

The history of the development of geomechanics, rock mechanics and mining rock mechanics in Australia has been outlined by Brown (1991, 1992, 1999, 2004a). Currently, mining rock mechanics or rock-related research in Australia is carried out by the Commonwealth Government-funded national research organisation, CSIRO, and by small numbers of universities, industry sponsored organisations and consulting companies. Little mining rock mechanics research is now carried out by other government instrumentalities or by the mining companies themselves.

As will become apparent from the outline of the arrangements in place to be given below, funding for mining rock-related research in Australia comes from a range of national and international sources with little or no central coordination. As a result, it is not simple to establish the total annual levels of funding. Putting aside the costs incurred by the mining companies for mine site facilities and experiments, the writer estimates that the current annual direct expenditure on mining rock-related research by the University-related research providers identified below is in the order of $A 4 million. It is estimated that something like 40 full-time equivalent personnel are engaged on mining rock-related research through these organisations. It is estimated that the CSIRO’s direct expenditure on mining rock-related research and the numbers of full time equivalent personnel involved are both a little less than the totals for the University-related sector at $A 3.5 million and 27, respectively. Accordingly, the total annual Australian mining rock-related expenditure is probably greater than the SIMRAC program expenditure. It must be remembered, however, that only a small part of this overall Australian expenditure is devoted specifically to improving safety. Much of it is directed to what is referred to in Figure 2.1 of the main report as improving efficiency and sustainability, sometimes referred to as productivity.

3.1.2 The Universities

With the exception of two small private universities, Australia’s universities are part of a so-called Unified National System introduced in 1988. They are funded largely by annual grants from the Commonwealth Government and student fees. Because of their differing histories, sizes, locations and disciplinary mixes, not all Australian universities fit the one mould. However, because of Government funding and other policies, and the associated regulatory and reporting requirements, Australian universities are now often seen to be less disparate than might be expected, or might be considered desirable (Coaldrake & Stedman 1998).

Rock-related research and teaching in Australian universities usually form part of broader programs in civil engineering geomechanics or mining engineering. Mining rock mechanics research programmes exist in five of Australia’s 37 universities – the Universities of New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and Wollongong, and the Western Australian School of Mines (WASM), Curtin University. Table 1 summarises the current and recent mining rock mechanics research programs in these universities in terms of their organisational units, research interests (as published on University web-sites) and examples of recent publications. Postgraduate research for master’s and PhD degrees is part of the programs listed in Table 1. To the best of the writer’s knowledge, the only taught master’s level courses having a specialisation in mining rock mechanics offered by Australian universities are those at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, New South Wales, and the Western Australian School of Mines in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.

3. 
   CSIRO
   

The national research organisation, CSIRO, has carried out mining geomechanics and mining rock mechanics research since the late 1960s (Brown 1991). Currently, the organisation carries out basic and applied rock-related research through its divisions of Exploration and Mining and of Petroleum. This work is supported by both Commonwealth Government and project-based industry funding, some of which comes from companies operating outside Australia. The CSIRO also participates in the national Australian Research Council (see Section 3.1.4) and Cooperative Research Centres (see Section 3.1.5) programs. The mining rock-related topics on which CSIRO carries out research will be outlined in Section 3.2.2 below.

3. 
   Australian Research Council
   

The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the major Australian Government research funding agency and the major source of advice to the Commonwealth Government on investment in the national research and development effort. It is the major source of research funding available to university-based researchers, in particular. The ARC

• 
  supports the highest quality research and training through national competition in all fields of science, social sciences and the humanities; and
  
• 
  brokers partnerships between researchers and industry, government, community organisations and the international community.
  

ARC research funding programs fall under the umbrella of the National Competitive Grants Program. The ARC Discovery program funds individual researchers and projects. The ARC Linkage program helps broker partnerships between researchers and industry, government and community organisations as well as the international community. The ARC Centres program builds research scale and focus and strengthens major research partnerships.

Despite the importance of the mining industry to Australia’s GDP and its export trade, as illustrated in Section 2 above, mining rock-related research is poorly supported by the ARC. Most researchers in this field usually find success in making applications easier to achieve in the ARC’s Linkage program than in the highly competitive Discovery program. It has not been unknown in recent years for there not to have been a single successful mining rock-related application in the annual grant round. Over a period of several years, the solid mechanics-based research group at the University of Western Australia (UWA) has been more successful than most of the other groups in attracting ARC funding. However, as a general rule, the ARC is not a significant contributor to mining rock-related research funding in Australia.

3. 
   Cooperative Research Centres
   

In 1990, the Australian Commonwealth Government established its Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program. CRCs undertake collaborative research and education programs in the natural sciences and engineering with a strong emphasis on commercial and other applications. The research partners for each CRC usually include the CSIRO and one or more universities with funding coming from Commonwealth, industry and research provider contributions. Two CRCs, the CRC Mining (established in 2003 as the successor to the CRC for Mining Technology and Equipment or CMTE) and the Australian Petroleum CRC (APCRC), carry out research in different areas of geomechanics. For some years, the CMTE had major mining rock-related programs in the drilling and excavation of rock, and geological sensing or the determination of rock properties ahead of mining operations using mainly geophysical techniques. Most of APCRC’s major research programs have rock mechanics components but, other than for the excellent work carried out on hydraulic fracturing fundamentals, technology and applications, they are not related directly to mining.

3.1.6 ACARP

For some years in the 1980s and early 1990s, some coal mining-related geomechanics research in Australia was funded through the National Energy Research Development and Demonstration Council by a levy imposed by the Commonwealth on coal production. That system was replaced in 1993 by the Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP) funded through a mutually agreed contribution of 5 cents per tonne by producers of black coal. ACARP sponsored research which is funded and managed by the industry, includes significant rock-related components in its underground and surface mining programs (Galvin 1999). As will be noted below, the ACARP research management system is considered to have significant strengths.

In a review of ACARP underground coal mining geomechanics research carried out in 2001, the writer concluded that the program had produced some outstanding research by international standards (Golder Associates 2001). About two-thirds of the research carried out over the six year period considered in the review was carried out by CSIRO Exploration and Mining, the School of Mining Engineering at the University of New South Wales, and two consulting organisations, SCT Operations Pty Ltd and Strata Engineering (Australia) Pty Ltd. Examples were identified of four outstanding projects or groups of projects in the areas of pillar design, longwall geomechanics, hydraulic fracturing to alleviate rock fall and wind blast hazards, and optimising primary bolting to improve roadway development efficiency.

3.1.7 Other industry bodies and funding

From the mid-1960s, the Australian mining industry became a major sponsor of geomechanics research in the universities and CSIRO. While some research funding was provided directly to research groups by individual mining companies, by far the greater proportion of industry funding was channelled through the Australian Mineral Industries Research Association Ltd (AMIRA, now known as AMIRA International) which acts as a research broker and manager for the industry. In recent years, fewer mining geomechanics projects have been sponsored through AMIRA than was the case in the 1970s and 1980s (Brown 1991). There has been an increased, or renewed, tendency for the mining companies, many of which have become increasingly globalised of late, to sponsor applied research projects directly with research providers, either singly or through consortia.

In the important mining State of Western Australia, two organisations with interests in mining geomechanics research and postgraduate training have been established. The Minerals and Energy Research Institute of Western Australia (MERIWA) is a statutory body established by the Western Australian Government Minerals and Energy Research Act of 1987. MERIWA provides up to 35% of the total funding required for worthwhile research projects and coordinates industry sponsorship for the remaining 65%. In 1992, the major rock mechanics research providers in the State, the University of Western Australia (UWA), the Western Australian School of Mines (WASM) and CSIRO Exploration and Mining, with the support of the State Government’s Department of Industry and Resources and the minerals industry, established the Australian Centre for Geomechanics (ACG) to promote research and education in the field of geomechanics for Australia’s extractive resources industries. As well as conducting applied research in rock mechanics and other areas of geomechanics for both surface and underground mining applications, the ACG has been especially active in organising and delivering a range of conferences, workshops and short courses aimed at meeting the industry’s needs. As will be discussed in Section 3.2.4 below, the ACG has also published a range of handbooks and other learning and training materials.

An important development in the industry funding of mining geomechanics research occurred in 1997 when the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC), University of Queensland, and the Itasca Consulting Group Inc, Minneapolis, USA, began work on the International Caving Study Stage I (ICS I). This study was sponsored by an international grouping of mining companies engaged in, or planning, block or panel caving operations. The need for the study arose from the companies’ interests in mining larger, stronger and deeper orebodies by highly productive mass mining methods. The outcomes of ICS I and the state-of-the-art of cave mining at the time were reported in the monograph, Block Caving Geomechanics (Brown 2003). The second stage of the study, ICS II, was completed in August 2004. Plans are now being put in place for a successor to the ICS in the area of mass mining technology (Brown 2004a).

3.1.8 Research facilities

Because of the wide geographical distribution and limited sizes of the Australian research groups involved in mining rock-related research, the available research facilities could probably best be described as being average, or perhaps better than average, in world terms. The large-scale, well-equipped facilities available to CSIRO Exploration and Mining at the Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies in Brisbane, provides the exception to this generalisation. This is not to say that other research groups do not have good, and in some cases, unique research facilities available to them.

Some examples of the major or unique rock-related research facilities and items of equipment available in Australia are:

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  3D visualisation and modelling capabilities (CSIRO E&M)
  
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  Siro joint and Siro Vision systems (CSIRO E&M)
  
• 
  Hydraulic fracturing equipment (CSIRO Petroleum)
  
• 
  Rock bolt anchorage testing rig (UNSW)
  
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  Experimental rock cutting and drilling laboratories (CSIRO E&M, CRC Mining, UNSW)
  
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  3D virtual reality and simulation laboratories (UQ, UNSW)
  
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  Dynamic reinforcing element testing facility (WASM)
  
• 
  Support and reinforcement corrosion chamber (WASM)
  

These facilities are supported by the usual testing facilities of the types listed in Appendix C of the main report.

3.2 Scope, quality and impact of the research

3.2.1 Identification of research needs

To the best of the writer’s knowledge, there is no central mechanism for the identification of mining industry rock-related research needs in Australia that is at all comparable to the SIMRAC mechanism established under a national Act in South Africa. The national research priorities set by the ARC and those developed by the States are of a much broader nature. The peak national industry body, the Minerals Council of Australia, plays some role in establishing research directions, particularly in the areas of health and safety. The involvement of State Government departments in setting research directions is variable with the Western Australian Department of Industry and Resources being more active than most.

ACARP probably has the most completely developed system of identifying industrial research needs and managing the research process, although individual research groups, particularly the CRCs, the CSIRO divisions and the ACG have their own well-developed mechanisms for identifying research programs and topics. The research program of the ICS and of its proposed successor in the area of mass mining technology, have also been developed, and are managed, in conjunction with sponsors representatives. In many cases, however, projects emerge on a relatively ad hoc basis as a result of initiatives taken by individual researchers and research leaders rather than as a result of a systematic identification of the industry’s research needs.

In recent years. largely as a result of the work of the Minerals Tertiary Education Council (MTEC) established in 2000 by the Minerals Council of Australia, there have been moves to establish a national centre of excellence in mining geomechanics. The model generally proposed is for an industry and government sponsored centre having nodes in two or three locations in different parts of the country (e.g. Brisbane, Sydney and Perth). In a report prepared for MTEC, the writer recommended that a necessary precursor to the establishment of such a centre would be an industry-centred exercise to define the research needs, even if only in broad terms (Golder Associates 2002). There is no evidence that such an exercise has been carried out.