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Announcement
Welcome to the Seventh International Conference & Exhibition on Mass Mining - MassMin 2016, to be held from 9-11 May 2016 at the Australian Technology Park, Sydney.
The MassMin series of conferences remains the pre-eminent global bulk mining event, attracting hundreds of delegates from all major mining companies and countries.
MassMin 2016 will bring together researchers, engineers and practitioners to present the latest accomplishments, innovations and potential future direction in mass mining and its applications around the world.
In the spirit of being truly international, the MassMin conference series has been shared among countries and continents through the years:
- Denver, USA, 1982
- Johannesburg, South Africa, 1992
- Brisbane, Australia, 2000
- Santiago, Chile, 2004
- Lulea, Sweden, 2008
- Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, 2012
- Sydney, Australia, 2016
What is Mass Mining?
The definition of mass mining in some ways depends upon when you ask the question and the context in which it is asked. In its simplest form, mass mining refers to large-scale mining, at high tonnage rates, of large deposits of the world's important commodities. The size of these deposits is typically defined by substantial dimensions in all three directions. Characteristically, mass mining entails deployment of the available technology to support an operation of significant scale and degree of mechanisation for its time.
These mining operations stand in contrast to the majority of mines that pursue a more selective approach to mining by virtue of the discrete nature of their host deposits and distribution of value. However, as the 20th Century drew to a close interest in mass mining increased. This reflected the exhaustion of easy-to-access higher grade deposits, advances in technology and the underlying principles of large-scale mining. Together these factors helped to drive operating costs down, thereby rolling back boundaries in grade (value) and scale enabling economic extraction of large lower grade deposits.
The MassMin conference series has evolved over more than 30 years to focus principally on large-scale underground mining with an emphasis on the application of mining methods that involve caving the overlaying rock mass as the ore is mined, now known as 'caving methods'. These methods currently represent a mining approach capable of supporting the largest scale and lowest operating cost underground mining currently available. At the same time more conventional mining on a massive scale also fits the concept having many traits in common with caving methods, such as bulk materials handling, but with more challenging requirements for enabling services (ventilation, logistics, backfill, etc) and technical services
Latest News
Workshops Program Released
Workshops include:
- W1: Cave Establishment
- W2: Managing Geohazards in Cave Mining
- W3: Monitoring and Modelling the Seismic Rock Mass Response to Sub-level and Block Cave Mining
- W4: Physical and Numerical Modelling of Caving Mechanics
Abstracts
Click here to view the MassMin 2016 abstracts.
Student Poster Display
There will be a Student Poster Display at MassMin 2016. This is an amazing opportunity for students to demonstrate their knowledge, get in front of influential leaders in the industry and attend a world-class conference. See the Student Programpage for more information. Abstracts for posters are due by Monday 18 January 2016.
Keynote Speakers Announced
MassMin 2016 is pleased to announce the following keynote speakers have been confirmed to present during the conference
- Fidel Baez Nunez, Executive Vice-President, Underground Mining, Codelco
- Professor Steve Begg, Head of School and Professor of Petroleum Engineering & Management, University of Adelaide
- Geoff Dunstan FAusIMM, Head of Mining, Newcrest Mining Ltd
- Dr Robert Long, Executive Director, Human Dymensions
- Monica Quinteiro, General Manager Quality & Environmental LKAB, Sweden
- Asa Sundqvist, Mine Manager Malmberget Mine, Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB (LKAB), Sweden
*website: http://www.massmin2016.com/
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