Throughout 2024, Friction has continued to be a trusted resource for geotechnical professionals, providing global insights into the critical challenges and advancements within our industry.

Welcome to our second last edition of 2024. With this month’s focus on block cave mining, we look at why effective draw control is essential for optimising efficiency and safety while safeguarding ore reserves.

Welcome to September. As we transition to the business end of the year, we turn our attention to a critical area of our industry: tailings dam rehabilitation. In this edition, Senior Geotechnical Engineer, Ahmad Zarei of Cartledge Mining & Geotechnics highlights the innovative methods emerging in the management and safety of tailings dams. He shares his perspective on the cutting-edge approaches being used in tailings dam management, which prioritise both environmental responsibility and long-term structural integrity.  

Welcome to August! This month, we delve into the varying standards of geotechnical education and training around the globe.

Australian geotechnical engineers are fortunate to operate in an advanced industry, with ample access to resources, technology and development opportunities. But not every resource-rich nation is the same. With a shortage of engineers coming through, there is a significant need to address advancement in training geotechnical engineers in resource-rich developing countries, to ensure a thriving industry globally.

We are officially past the halfway point of 2024 and so far in Friction we have covered everything from Corporate Governance to Safety in Design to Numerical Modelling and Laboratory Testing. For this edition, we dive into raiseboring and how geotechnical investigation and thorough assessment is essential to reducing uncertainty and risk in the process, but must occur without compromising how findings are delivered.

Good governance encompasses not only the system by which organisations are controlled, but the mechanisms by which organisations and those who comprise them are held to account.

This month we dive deep into corporate governance framework and look at the crucial role the board of governance plays in navigating sustainability, risk management and legislative requirements.

Safety and mining go hand in hand. With the majority of work being performed in high-pressure environments for long hours at a time and in remote locations, there are a number of factors to consider when thinking about the health, safety and well-being of all on site.

In this month’s edition, we explore the importance of incorporating safety in design and why safety measures must be featured prominently throughout the entirety of a project, from concept to closure.

As geotechnical engineers, structural geology is at the very core of everything we do. This month, I personally dive into the importance of structural geology and why it’s imperative we look at the rocks first.

As geotechnical professionals, we are responsible for providing accurate advice about mine design and operations, and laboratory testing is one of the avenues that enables us to do just that.

In this month’s edition, we dig deep into the importance of geotechnical lab testing within the mining, resources and construction industries.

Welcome to the first edition of 2024. New year, same excellence in geotechnical news and information from across the globe.

This month, we dive deep into data acquisition and data management. From the technological advancements that affect the industry to the rising importance of sufficient data management, this edition provides valuable insight into why data and mining go hand-in-hand.

As we prepare to round out the year that was with our November edition of Friction, we dive deep into Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) and the role it plays in the mining industry.

ESG is on everyone’s minds, and for good reason, with every sector’s ESG policies and approach to sustainability in the spotlight. The mining and geotechnical engineering industry is no different.

How the mining industry monitors tailings dams has evolved over the years with advancements in technology, AI and research and development.

In this month’s edition, we dive deep into the complex structures that are tailings dams and how the future need for development, training and upskilling must not be ignored.

In this month’s edition we look at the future generation of geotechnical engineers. From addressing the skill-shortages that face the industry to improving the image and attraction of mining, we hear personally from senior geotechnical engineers within the education system to understand what this looks like and why it’s a fundamental focus.

In this months edition, we hear how Slope Stability Radars are used, the changes they are making throughout our industry and the importance of conducting a dam breach analysis and what happens when they go wrong.

Geotechnical risk management is an important part of engineering. In this edition we look at why it should be built into your mine design from the beginning.

Access roads, build pads, levees, dams, drains – all are vital, primary infrastructure across mine sites so, by their nature, demand a geotechnical engineer’s full attention to ensure safety and stability.

Ensuring the safety of a mine site is of utmost importance to any geotechnical engineer and there are numerous ways and techniques to achieve this. The final line of defence is ground support.  

Slopes, softwalls, stresses and stability. This is the language of geotechnics where no two mine sites are the same, one size never fits all, and technology forms a crucial pairing with creativity to deliver tailored data-driven solutions. 

Geotechnical professionals are always under pressure to provide accurate advice about mine design and operations. But even the most sophisticated analysis can become meaningless if the data it is based on is inadequate or inaccurate.

Attracting new geotechnical professionals to the mining industry continues to be a challenge in 2023. In this edition of Friction, we look at the role we can all play in promoting our industry and attracting new talent to the profession.