Friction: Edition 1 | September 2022
FROM THE EDITOR
Currently, geotechnical and rock engineering professionals working in the mining industry have to consume information about our specialisation in related areas, either engineering or mining publications. While the publications do a great job in covering a wide and diverse spectrum of subjects, it often means our core profession is missed or key learnings can be diluted as part of a larger story.
It’s for this very reason we have decided to launch one of the world’s first dedicated news platforms designed for mining geotechnical engineering practitioners working in mining and resources – Friction.
This has been an idea brewing for some time now. However, considering that the mining and resources sector is leading the charge in innovation, resourcing and technology, we knew now was the right time to launch a dedicated platform for geotechnical practitioners.
The purpose of Friction is to bring together the best ideas to highlight the work and innovation being done in our field from abundant but disparate sources. We focus on new learnings and technology, while shining a spotlight on interesting and innovative geotechnical engineering practitioners.
Aside from the obvious name connection to our sector, for us Friction was a perfect choice for what we wanted to deliver as it sees new thinking come into contact with open minds. Friction is truly a platform for all mining practitioners who have a common passion to learn and share knowledge.
I welcome you to subscribe to our monthly newsletters, submit a contribution or nominate someone who would be great for our profile features.
Regards,
Tim Cartledge
Friction is made possible thanks to our contributors who offer up their valuable time and knowledge. If you know a geotechnical engineer who’d enjoy Friction, please forward this email to them or share any of our news and features on LinkedIn. You can also direct them to our sign-up link here.
Digging deeper into cave mining
With renewable energy and technology driving increased demand for ore and minerals at a time when extensive orebodies become harder to access – block caving is more frequently hyped as the future of mining. But is this technique as efficient, safe, or as well understood as it should be?
Dr Fernando Vieira argues the industry does not yet have a sufficient level of understanding of the ground responses induced by cave mining, and that not enough research has gone into the geomechanics phenomena associated with caving methods. As cave mining progresses to deeper or wider horizons, or more complex geology, geotechnical practitioners need more advanced knowledge and certainly a lot more information on the behaviour of caving rock masses to mitigate or avoid catastrophic failure and substantial financial losses in these mines.
Q&A with Gregory More O’Ferrall
Every month Friction puts 10 questions to a member of the industry to learn more about their career path and views. This month we put Canadian independent rock engineering consultant Gregory More O’Ferrall in the spotlight.
NEWS, PUBLICATIONS AND UPDATES
Threading the needle between geostatistics, rock licking and human psychology
In this Coring Magazine article, Lucy Potter looks at the challenge of interpreting natural systems represented by poorly sampled data sets, using sophisticated methods designed to respect stationarity and change of support for different model objectives while balancing external pressure from management, clients, and mining engineers.
Teaching computers how to see rocks
In this geohug talk, Brenton Crawford from Datarock shows examples of how computer vision is being used in conjunction with traditional core photography to create deposit-wide datasets
Caving 2022 Papers now available
The fifth International Conference on Block and Sublevel Caving was held in Adelaide at the start of the month. All 92 papers presented are now available to be accessed for free.
GEOLAB calls for research ideas
Are you interested in performing groundbreaking experiments and innovation in geotechnical engineering? Do you have research ideas on the pressures confronting the critical Infrastructures of Europe? GEOLAB’s second call for proposals closes September 30.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Mine Closure 2022 | 4-6 October 2022 | Brisbane
Australian Centre for Geomechanics event.
Learn More
71st Geomechanics Colloquium 2022 | 13-15 October 2022 | Salzburg
Hybrid online and onsite event hosted by the Austrian Society for Geomechanics.
Learn More
HAVE SOMETHING TO SHARE?
Friction is about connecting our industry together. If you have an article, paper or insight to share we'd love to hear from you. Find out how you can contribute to Friction here.
