Japan and South Africa are working together to mitigate seismic risk in deep underground mines. Although not a major mining country, Japan has underground coal-mines that experience extreme seismicity. Read on page 18 of this edition of Mining Weekly of Japan’s Ritsumeikan University, Tohoku University and Tokyo University working with South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the Council for Geoscience and the University of the Witwatersrand in a joint five-year research project. Being tested in South Africa are Japan’s acoustic emission sensors that provide early warning against rockbursts caused by sudden rock movements, which excavation at depth aggravates. In two months, 24 acoustic emission sensors placed a kilometre below surface at Sibanye Gold’s Cooke 4 mine on the West Rand have recorded an average of ten thousand microfractures a day. Ten seismic stations have also been established on surface at Western Deep.

The mining industry needs to develop an innovative strategy to ensure its sustainability and relevance, says Venmyn Deloitte MD Andy Clay, who delivered a keynote address to the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM) Surface Mining conference at the Electra Mining Africa Exhibition. Read on page 14 of this edition of Mining Weekly of his contention that only lower-cost companies were likely to survive the industry’s tough current conditions and, to keep ahead, they needed to consider own-power mine plans that initially involved surface mining in high-grade areas and pilot plants able to process small volumes ahead of as-needed modular expansion. He warned of mining facing a bleak future if companies failed to innovate,

Mining engineering students need to become “imagineers” who use virtual reality simulations for mine planning and design, says University of Pretoria (UP) Department of Mining Engineering (DME) head Dr Ronny Webber-Youngman. Read on page 13 of this edition of Mining Weekly of Webber-Youngman advocating the use of virtual reality technology to ensure the design of safe and productive future mines. He contends that these tools can also assist in the simulation of physical mines in a virtual environment, as was already being shown in countries like Brazil, Australia, Europe and Poland. He points out that four-dimensional visual reality simulations can take participants through time to view the future outcomes of a decision by combining three-dimensional representations of physical situations with other forms of data presentation. As Mining Weekly reported in January, Anglo American subsidiary Kumba Iron Ore has sponsored the development of Africa’s first virtual reality mine design centre at the UP’s DME as part of an R18.8-million project, which covers accident reconstruction and risk analysis. Kumba’s design centre consisted of floor-to-ceiling screens and the virtual reality simulator casts 360º three-dimensional images against the surrounding panels with cinematic clarity and sound effects.