The Australian Centre for Geomechanics looks forward to hosting the Fourth International Symposium on Block and Sublevel Caving in Vancouver in October 2018. This follows previous symposia held in Santiago in 2014; Perth, 2010 and Cape Town, 2007.
The growing popularity of caving methods around the world is largely due to the very low production cost and the intrinsic safety associated with the mining approach. It is often the only viable mining method for some of the lower grade massive orebodies that are becoming too deep for open pit mining.
Strategically, most medium and large mining companies are operating or planning to operate a caving mine. Codelco’s El Teniente Mine in Chile and the LKAB’s Kiirunavaara Mine in Sweden are among the largest and most famous caving operations in the world.
Canada’s lead caving operations include New Gold’s New Afton underground block caving mine which seeks to produce an annual average of 75 million pounds of copper and 80,000 ounces of gold over a 12 year mine life. Source: http://www.newgold.com/careers/new-afton-project/careers/default.aspx
Cave mining has become one of the most research intensive areas of mining engineering in recent times. Mining companies need to be kept informed of the latest technological developments from caving research, and researchers require a regular platform to present their results and interact with industry practitioners.
Important dates
Abstract submission: 19 February 2018 | Speaker registration deadline: 9 July 2018 |
Acceptance notification: 26 February 2018 | Copyright form submission: 9 July 2018 |
Draft paper submission: 23 April 2018 | Bio notes submission: 9 July 2018 |
Reviewer feedback: Mid June 2018 | Draft PowerPoint QC: 29 August 2018 |
Final paper submission: 9 July 2018 |