When it comes to training and developing geotechnical engineers, the global playing field is anything but level. Natural-resource-rich developing countries face compounding challenges, extending from resources, facilitation of formal programs and funding, to talent attraction and retention, often with complex cultural systems also at play.

Cartledge Mining and Geotechnics Principal Consultant Tim Cartledge explores this globally significant issue, with insights from Senior Lecturer Jannie Maritz from the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Raiseboring – creating a vertical shaft into underground mine pits without explosives – is conceptually straightforward. In practice, however, it can be a complex story, with many factors including location ground condition and structure, projected service lifespan and other engineering considerations at play.

In this article, Phillip Quinn, Cartledge Mining and Geotechnics Senior Geotechnical Engineer, explores the process and how thorough geotechnical investigation, in collaboration with all stakeholders, can greatly improve a raiseboring project’s safe completion.

From the planning and design phases to closure and rehabilitation, corporate governance has significant impacts throughout the entirety of a mine’s life cycle. So, it is important that we, as geotechnical engineers, understand the structures behind corporate governance to best achieve compliance.

In this piece, Wouter Hartman explores how governments and regulators are striding towards a more sustainable and safe future for the mining industry, through the improved regulatory, compliance and risk management processes that underpin how a corporation conducts its business. Wouter also shares his knowledge on common corporate governance structures.

For geotechnical engineers, it’s easy to go straight for the detail, the data, and pour energy into what’s perceived, and known, to work best. In this article, Cartledge Mining and Geotechnics Director Tim Cartledge explores the simple yet often overlooked process of stepping away from the desk, getting out on site and just looking at the rocks – adding another dimension to the benefits of numerical modelling – to gain the fullest picture of what’s really going on.