Search Documents

RME has a vision for a new mill operational paradigm made possible by RMEÆs fast, safe Mill Relining System. This vision can be moved forward into reality at any time with or without guidance from recent development in measurement and predictive modelling tools.Some new liner designs can degrade SAG mill performance because of mill volume loss, ball strike (rotational speed limitations) and other issues often brought about by optimising liners for life and without a backward glance at metallurgical consequences. Freshly relined mills can initially produce as little as 80 per cent of their maximum throughput, that maximum occurring toward the end of the linersÆ wear life. RMEÆs proposition is to design new liners for maximum commercial performance. This may mean more frequent changes of liners but with liners designed to yield optimum grinding, metallurgical and profitability performance. In other words, mill liner profiles and mill relining speed become key operational controls and not simply æmust doÆ maintenance functions. Taken to the extreme, liner profiles may prove capable of ætuningÆ a grinding plant for maximum profitability in any metal price environment. This paper provides an update regarding RMEÆs fast, safe Mill Relining System technologies and outlines RMEÆs vision of a æliner profile versus profitabilityÆ model as a function of metal price, developed intuitively or by using a combination of new measurement and modelling technologies. These new measurement and modelling tools provide the opportunity to predict the optimum commercial outcome, off-line in the virtual world, before committing to an expensive liner experiment.

Jan 1, 2006

By C Jacobsen, N Harries

Assessing and managing instability hazards is an essential activity when working with unstable natural slopes and excavated open pit mining slopes. Slope monitoring has become the standard technique for the management of geotechnical risks associated with mine slope instability hazards. In recent decades, a proliferation of new monitoring techniques such as terrestrial radar, satellite InSAR and LIDAR have become standard operational tools, complementing conventional survey-based monitoring solutions. A reliable monitoring system should identify and record incipient anomalous slope movement. Although the most obvious purpose of a monitoring system is safety related, slope deformation and performance monitoring also enhance the understanding of slope behaviour and assists in improving system design and implementation. For a monitoring system to be considered an effective early warning tool, it needs to operate in real-time and should be linked to the mine’s emergency communication systems. Terrestrial radar systems have been developed that can provide near real-time measurements, at a high level of precision and covering broad areas in all weather conditions. This has had a positive impact on the management of geotechnical risks in operational conditions. The technology adoption of RADAR in mine monitoring has significantly progressed in the last 20 years from technology enthusiasts, to visionaries, to pragmatists to conservative users. However, the increasing adoption of RADAR cannot reduce or remove other monitoring techniques that often have important benefits; even if these technologies cannot be used as a real-time operational tool. An increasing awareness on the importance of combining data from different monitoring techniques to develop a holistic picture of all possible geotechnical hazards is a current industry trend. This is proving to be an excellent foundation for managing hazards associated with slope instability in open pit mines, and is only expected to improve with time with the adoption of new technologies based on big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Nov 29, 2022

By J Eberhard, C Paton, J Bennett, C Baillie, A Melland, J F. Clewett, T Newsome

A central aim of rehabilitation is to ensure that disturbed land is returned to a post-mine condition that is safe, stable and self-sustaining. This paper describes initial results from a grazing trial at the New Acland open-cut coal mine in southern Queensland (-27.27 lat, 151.72 long) that aims to assess the sustainability and viability of cattle production from rehabilitated mined land compared to production from surrounding unmined lands (Newsome 2014). The grazing trial was established in 2013 by the Acland Pastoral Company, a subsidiary of New Hope Coal, on lands previously used for dairying, beef and crops before open cut coal mining of the Walloon coal measures began in 2002. The area has a mean annual rainfall of 640 mm. Local soils, typically dermosols and vertosols derived from sandstones or overlying basalt flows, are suited to grazing but are marginal for cropping.CITATION:Clewett, J F, Newsome, T, Paton, C, Bennett, J, Melland, A, Eberhard, J and Baillie, C, 2018. Sustainable production from rehabilitated coal mine pastures in southern Queensland’s Brigalow Region – Acland grazing trial results, in Proceedings Life-of-Mine 2018, pp 35–37 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 25, 2018

By T Baumgartl, T Huynh, K Tungpalan, E Wightman, M Edraki, M Tayebi-Khorami, L Huang, S Palaniandy, E Manlapig

With the increasing rate of tailing production worldwide there is a growing concern about the hazards of tailings storage facilities (TSF). Past and current mining, processing and waste disposal strategies that focus on the extraction of the valuable minerals, and an economic assessment only, are no longer suitable. Social implications and environmental legacies must be included for effective evaluation. This is possible by using an integrated assessment framework to evaluate more alternatives, including the production of additional saleable and benign streams, alternative tailings treatment and disposal as well as options for reuse, recycling and preprocessing of existing tailings. Tailings are not viewed as a final waste product but as part of the resource. From the sustainability perspective the models developed in integrated research programs will contribute to more effective methods for assessing different scenarios and potential processes and lead to better environmental management, increased production of benign tailings and improved efficiency of water and energy use and thus more responsible resource stewardship of the ore resource.This paper presents preliminary results from a multiyear research program on integrated tailings management at the Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI), The University of Queensland, called ‘Designer Tailings’. The project involves the gathering of experimental and observational information on tailings biogeochemical processes to design and modify the range of activities within mineral processing plants, upstream characterisation ore and gangue, and downstream tailings management for desired tailings properties and outcomes. This information will assist the development of new total integrated value chain CITATION:Edraki, M, Huynh, T, Baumgartl, T, Huang, L, Andrusiewicz, M, Tungpalan, K, Tayebi-Khorami, M, Wightman, E, Palaniandy, S, Manlapig, E, Evans, C, Farrokhpay, S, Bradshaw, D and Vink, S, 2014. Designer tailings – an integrated model for tailings management, in Proceedings Life-of-Mine 2014 , pp 599–608 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 16, 2014

By J A. Braithwaite

Social licence to operate is not a new concept for the mining industry, referring to stakeholder approval or acceptance for the activities and impacts of a project, company or industry. It is intangible, dynamic and non-permanent, hence it needs to be earned and then maintained (Thomson and Boutilier, 2014). It has also been argued that social licence extends beyond building approval or acceptance, into engagement for long-term development (Owen and Kemp, 2012).There are many examples where stakeholder opposition – or withdrawal of social licence – have increased capital and operating costs, extended schedules and impacted reputation. At its extreme, the withdrawal of social licence to operate can also contribute to or be the catalyst for mine closure.The key benefit of obtaining a social licence is a reduction of risk. Stakeholder support and advocacy, as well as the implementation of social performance programs that contribute to social licence, can be beneficial in terms of schedule, costs and other benefits.While decisions to close a mine are generally driven by resource availability or economic conditions, the social, economic and environmental legacy remaining post-closure is of importance to many stakeholders. With a number of significant mines now approaching closure within Australia, we are seeing heightened community concern about the economic and social impact of mine closure and the success of land rehabilitation. So how does the concept of social licence to operate extend into the closure phase of the mining life cycle?CITATION:Braithwaite, J A, 2016. Social licence to close?, in Proceedings Life-of-Mine 2016 Conference, pp 176–179 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jun 28, 2016

By B J. Beven, A Harris, L Balzan

Fortescue Metals Group flagship operation, Cloudbreak, is located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The mine is capable of delivering an annualised production rate of 40 Mt/a. Positioned 50 km to the east of Cloudbreak is Fortescue’s Christmas Creek operation, which has a combined processing capacity in excess of 50 Mt/a. Following on from these successes, Fortescue advanced development of its western Pilbara mines at the 60 Mt/a Solomon Hub. These processing installations place Fortescue in a strong position to deliver on a guidance of between 155–160 Mt/a for financial year 2014/2015.As Fortescue enters a phase of asset consolidation and debt repayment over expansion, the business is commanding stronger performance through enhanced plant operating practices and mine site cost reduction initiatives. To this end, the strategic placement of instrumentation is an area being given greater consideration. Access to real-time information pertaining to conveyed materials is of major interest to operators for making timely process control decisions. Fortescue has recognised the importance of accurate and up-to-date process information about their ores and hence, has adopted the use of Scantech’s Geoscan mineral analysers at two of their mines.There are two Geoscans at Cloudbreak; one on the ROM feed conveyor and another on the final product conveyor. These allow the in-feed material grade characteristics to be assessed. Moreover, the final product stream can be monitored to ensure product quality is maintained within acceptable quality tolerances. A third Geoscan is installed at Christmas Creek mine on a conveyor that transfers final products to Stockyards.This paper discusses the use of the Geoscans in these installations, including benefits to Fortescue’s operations, as well as functional considerations such as the impact of maintenance and calibration. A discussion of recent advances by Scantech is provided including enhancements to the calibration process and minimising plant downtime, along with a summary of results obtained.CITATION:Balzan, L, Beven, B J and Harris, A, 2015. Geoscan online analyser use for process control at Fortescue Metals Group sites in Western Australia, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2015, pp 99–106 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 13, 2015

By B Taylor

Although the underground mining environment is arguably safer now than at any time in history, as underground mining operations across the globe increase in-depth, magnitude, and complexity, protecting workers from harm becomes increasingly challenging. In deep, stressed, seismic mines the development face is one of the most hazardous work areas. The active face is usually the furthest extent of the underground workings, so ventilation can be difficult to maintain, exposing workers to high temperature and humidity while working on foot and doing manual labour. While mechanisation has made many tasks easier in modern times, the reality of underground mining is that development charge-up workers still spend long periods directly exposed hazards at the face. In 2019, Orica and Epiroc partnered to co-develop the world’s first fully mechanised development charging unit using fully wireless initiation, called Avatel™. Built on Epiroc’s M2 Boomer carrier platform, the system is designed to allow one person to charge a development face from the safety of a fully enclosed cabin, thereby reducing exposure to hazards at the face. The system was prototyped in Europe before entering commercial introduction in 2022. This paper reviews earlier attempts to mechanise underground charge-up and describes the development journey and engineering challenges of building a mechanised development charging machine.

Mar 29, 2023

By I Gipps

A vision of what the future mine involves all aspects of mining, ie orebody access, ore stoping, material transport, processing and waste material disposal. This paper examines one aspect of the future mine: rock extraction, stoping, automated for remote operation, high productivity and low cost. Concepts for the future require a re-think of the mining process and ROES® re-examines how bulk stoping of ore can be undertaken and how this should be redesigned to accommodate the possibilities that exists with remote control and automated operations.ROES® is a new mining system for underground mines and quarries utilising a shaft located close to or within the stope for the ore breakage process. The system is designed to exclude personnel from contact with production drilling, explosive placement and detonation so all of these tasks are remotely controlled or automated. Survey of the shaft, stope back and broken rock within the stope will occur, following each blast, by remote control or automated techniques. The survey will include excavation geometry, rock fragmentation, geotechnical characterisation and estimation of ore grade. Blastholes will be surveyed before placement of explosives and, with the survey data, the optimal explosive placement and blast timing will be determined with the best available information.ROES® is designed for application in open stoping or sublevel caving in disseminated, geologically defined, thick tabular or narrow vein ore bodies. Technologies developed for ROES® will also have potential applications to caving operations, reducing the risk of frozen ore and poor fragmentation. In a typical sublevel open stope application, ROES® will reduce the stope associated development by half and will allow ore to be brought on-stream sooner and at lower cost. Other savings will flow with the centralisation of mining activities and operational data, reduction in mining fleet, reduction in ventilation requirements, improved occupational safety and reduced mine complexity.

Nov 22, 2011

By C Armstrong, B Wentzinger

Upstream embankment raises often represent the lowest cost option for increasing the capacity of tailings storage facilities (TSF), but also pose the highest stability risk due to constructing on top of previously deposited tailings.This paper presents an overview of key aspects in the geotechnical investigation and design of upstream raises and some recent lessons learnt from experience across a number of TSFs in Australia. A summary of recommended field investigation and laboratory testing methods is provided with a focus on collecting quality information for design purposes. A strong focus is given in developing an accurate assessment of pore water pressures, which, if not correctly understood can have disastrous consequences on tailings strength parameter interpretation and wall stability assessment in static and post-seismic conditions.The assessment of the contractive or dilative shearing behaviour of the tailings material and rigorous interpretation of design characteristic values are presented. Some comments on stability analysis options and proposed methodology are also provided.CITATION:Wentzinger, B and Armstrong, C, 2018. Lessons learnt in geotechnical investigation and stability analysis for upstream tailings storage facility raise design, in Proceedings Mine Waste and Tailings Stewardship Conference 2018, pp 333–348 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 23, 2018

By Baker G

Chromite was recorded among the rare minerals in the natural beach sand concentrates on the coast of Northern New South Wales by Whitworth(l) in 1931, and the commercial production of zircon and rutile from these beach sands has yielded concentrates of ilmenite with small amounts of chromium. The chromite is a detrimental impurity in the utilisation of the ilmenite, and the difficulties that attend the separation of the small amount of chromite from the ilmunite have raised suggestions from time to time that chromite occurs with ilmenite in composite grains. The absence of such composite grains and the nature of the chromite grains has been indicated by the following mineragraphic examination of magnetic concentrates containing chromite which were prepared by the C.S.I.R. Ore Dressing Laboratory, Melbourne University, from ilmenite concentrates from beach sands at Norrie's Head, County Rous, New South Wales and Stradbroke Island, Queensland.The magnetic concentrates from each locality are divided into five fractions, and the No. 1 concentrate is the most highly magnetic and the tailing the least magnetic. Chromium assays as determined by the Ore Dressing Laboratory are as follows:-

Jan 1, 1948

By A Fyans, B Ghahreman-Nejad

This paper discusses the method and results of an options study into selection of the optimal form for a 130 m high tailings/water retaining dam, located in a region of high seismicity in central Iran. The proposed dam is part of a planned expansion project for Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine (SCM), which after construction will provide 550 million tonnes of additional tailings storage over the next 27 years. Geotechnical investigation at the proposed site indicated that adequate suitable low permeability materials (i.e. clay) were not available in the immediate vicinity of the dam site and would need to be imported from a distance of well over 10 km (direct). Given the magnitude of the estimated quantity of material and construction cost it was considered prudent to compare the cost of alternative dam design options for the proposed storage. A total of five dam design options are considered including a conventional rockfill embankment dam with an upstream sloping earth core (ECRD), a geomembrane face rockfill embankment dam (GFRD), a sloping asphalt core rockfill embankment dam (ACRD), a roller compacted concrete dam (RCCD), and a filter rockfill embankment dam for tailings storage together with a separate smaller earthfill core rockfill dam (ECRD) located downstream for storage of decant water. The risks, costing and design of all options are discussed in detail and the outcome of the study is presented.CITATION:Ghahreman-Nejad, B and Fyans, A, 2018. Optimum embankment design for a tailings dam, in Proceedings Mine Waste and Tailings Stewardship Conference 2018, pp 427–438 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Jul 23, 2018

Mining and mineral processing makes a vital contribution to AustraliaÆs national export income, and our society today is critically dependent on its products. Despite the importance of this industry, its operations often come under scrutiny because of its high potential impact on local environments û both social and ecological. The challenge for the minerals industry today is to make the most responsible and best possible use of the national resource base, maximising overall resource utilisation.Research efforts and industry implementation of improvements have been moving in this direction for a considerable time already, and the industry has a long history of process innovation and improvement in Australia. Examples range from the early development of gold cyanidation and mineral flotation to more recent work undertaken under the auspices of AMIRA or through the various CRCs and research organisations such as the AJ Parker CRC for Hydrometallurgy, the Cooperative Research Centre for Mining Technology and Equipment and the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre.However, the nature of research and innovation in the mining and mineral processing sector is changing, as the industry itself copes with the pressures introduced by globalisation, industry consolidation and commodity price cycles. Large firms that have historically maintained a tradition of corporate technology and a culture of innovation are moving to outsource their technological and research competencies and are adopting æfast-followerÆ mentalities. At the same time, the challenges of sustainable development that need to be addressed are many-faceted, multidisciplinary, and require a holistic approach for significant achievements to be realised. Many sustainability issues, particularly those pertaining to environmental and safety issues, are shared across large sections of the minerals industry, and are seen as æindustryÆ problems beyond the scope of a single company.In this environment, collaborative research efforts are becoming the dominant mechanisms for building on past innovations and ensuring the continued success of the mining and mineral processing industries within a framework of sustainable development.

Jan 1, 2004

By D Chalmers, C C. Harb

The detection and control of gas levels in mining is a continuing challenge for the industry. Standard detectors have many problems that could be overcome with laser based spectroscopic instruments, but to date these systems have not been suitable for mining conditions. This paper reports the development of a new digital data extraction scheme to modernise traditional cavity ring down spectroscopy (CRDS). CRDS is a direct cavity enhanced laser based absorption technique, which is used to allow the identification of an unknown substance by their molecular fingerprint; this unknown substance is identified by analysing the ring downtime of the light exiting the optical cavity. Traditional CRDS has many issues when analysing substances in hostile environments, or when multiple species may be present. This presents an alternative approach, called real-time CRDS (rtCRDS) that has the potential to overcome many of these issues and produces systems that could be used in the mining industry. The system utilises newly developed widely tuning quantum cascade lasers combined with improved optical cavities and novel digital data extraction to produce spectra over a 1500 nm range in a few seconds. The ring downtime measurements produced are accurate and have high sensitivity and maximum signal to noise ratio. This paper discusses the technique, illustrating the advantages compared to traditional systems and show real-time spectra for a set of molecules of interest to the mining industry. This paper also provided an analogy between this approach and that used in digital communications systems, and shows that this scheme is ideally suited to provide a network of sensors in hostile environments.CITATION:Harb, C C and Chalmers, D, 2015. Real-time methane detection – modern digital laser spectroscopy for hostile environments, in Proceedings The Australian Mine Ventilation Conference, pp 161–166 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Aug 31, 2015

By B Crompton, A Berghorst, G Knox

Laboratory-based dynamic testing provides an invaluable tool in the development of rock bolts for use in highly stressed, burst prone rock masses. While in most cases the laboratory-based test method is not a direct comparison to an in-situ installation due to the purely axial loading and variations in boundary conditions, it does provide an indication of the performance of the tendon system under dynamic loading. The aim of the research described in this paper is to provide an understanding of the effect of the impact velocity of the impact mass during a laboratory-based dynamic test. Understanding the effect of boundary conditions of laboratory testing will improve Geotechnical Engineers understanding of the performance in an in-situ installation. In addition, due to the limited number of dynamic test facilities, an understanding of the effects of the boundary conditions will aid in the comparison of test results for different products from different test facilities. The research was conducted using an impact tester, whereby a known mass is raised to a known height defining the kinetic energy and velocity of the mass at the point of impact with the test sample after release. The impact velocity was varied between 2.7 m/s and 5.4 m/s, while the kinetic energy of the mass was maintained at 11.5 kJ. While a correlation between the impact velocity and strain rate of the system tested was established, due to the properties of the system tested, the range of impact velocity on which dynamic tests were conducted was insufficient to result in a considerable change in the average impact load, the cumulative proximal displacement and the cumulative maximum energy absorbed over multiple impulse. However, due to the reduction in the momentum of the impact mass the impact duration and displacement during each impulse in the series of impulses reduced. CITATION:Knox, G, Berghorst, A and Crompton, B, 2018. The relationship between the magnitude of impact velocity per impulse and cumulative absorbed energy capacity of a rock bolt, in Proceedings The Fourth Australasian Ground Control in Mining Conference (AusRock), pp 160–169 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 30, 2018

By P Corbett, P Sheffield

Centennial Coal operates the Springvale longwall mining operation which extracts coal beneath the Newnes Plateau in the Western Coalfields of New South Wales. Springvale, and the neighbouring Angus Place mine, have a history of difficult geotechnical conditions where combinations of a relatively high stress regime and weak, laminated roof and extensive geological faulting has led to numerous roof failures throughout the mine’s life. Following development, the mines underground roadways can experience high levels of roof movement which may lead to roof falls. Multipoint wire extensometers are extensively used throughout the mine for roadway condition monitoring, and to reactively drive remedial strata support through trigger action response plans (TARPs).As a result of the use of high-density extensometer monitoring over a long period, the mines have an extensive archive of legacy data. Data processing has evolved over time in order to accommodate the increasing data volume, including direct data entry from the recently introduced hard-wired real-time monitoring instruments. It is likely that telemetric real-time instruments will be introduced in the future, which will cause another step change in data management requirements. This paper discusses the transition to and evolution of relational database management systems for extensometer and associated data.This paper also presents case studies of the use of a new software tool for reprocessing legacy data to enable time-scaled visualisation of monitoring data in the context of longwall and development face positions and installed strata support. The software can be used proactively in the identification of geotechnical risk factors and their interaction with the mining process to allow a more robust geotechnical hazard process. It interfaces directly with the widely used ExtoChart database software and can be presented with scale drawings of geological and geotechnical data to allow correlation of monitoring data results with risk factors.CITATION:Corbett, P and Sheffield, P, 2015. The use of high-intensity monitoring data to better characterise geotechnical properties of a non-homogeneous rock mass, in Proceedings Third International Future Mining Conference, pp 145–158 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 4, 2015

By D McCoy

Titanium feedstocks are the building blocks of the titanium value chain. They can be mined directly, as is the case for ilmenite, leucoxene and rutile, or manufactured from ilmenite by extracting various quantities of non-TiO2 components from the ore by chemical and/or thermal processes.While feedstocks can be grouped into categories of materials with similar characteristics, they are essentially unique products from very different mining locations around the world. In fact, no two feedstocks are exactly the same. As such, the variations between the available feedstocks, in combination with the permutations in processing technologies to turn the feedstocks into titanium pigment or metal, mean that choices between feedstocks are specific to the location in which they are utilised.In this paper, the authors examine the key requirements of titanium feedstocks to the TiO2 pigment and metal sectors. Apart from the well known differences between feedstock choices for the sulfate and chloride process, the more opaque considerations in feedstock sourcing are examined.

Oct 5, 2011

By B E. Hall, D B. Kahler

"'Optimisation' has become a catchcry among many mining companies looking to tell the market how mining businesses will be improved and shareholder value increased. Consequently, the term 'optimisation' has been adopted by many service providers as they look to assist mining companies in achieving their objectives. But the explosion of services and products being offered with the label 'optimisation' has created some confusion. Mining companies ask for help in 'optimising' and service providers offer their assistance because they have a product that has the word 'optimisation' in its title. This is of course an over-simplification, but not by much! The authors' discussions in recent years with both mining companies and service providers have uncovered a number of very different definitions of optimisation.This paper provides a framework for identifying the scope and approach of different mining optimisation products and services, particularly the distinction between optimisation of components of the operation and the business as a whole. The different types of business optimisation are discussed, highlighting the failings of the mining industry's typical approach of strategy selection (as opposed to strategy optimisation). Mining business optimisation is discussed as a wicked problem, with the implication of this on how strategy optimisation models should be used and what the objectives of a business optimisation study should be.Case studies are also included to illustrate how fully flexible strategy optimisation models have been applied to assist decision-makers understand the impacts of changes in one part of the operation on the whole mining and treatment process, from geological models to the sale of product to customers.CITATION:Kahler, D B and Hall, B E, 2016. Strategic decision-making in mining – business optimisation using flexible evaluation models, in Proceedings Project Evaluation 2016, pp 215–225 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne)."

Mar 8, 2016

By G Corder

The aim of the circular economy is to accelerate the transition from a conventional linear take-make-dispose economic model to a circular model. It is restorative and regenerative by design and aims to keep products, components and materials at their highest utility and value at all times. This extended abstract presents a brief overview of the circular economy, provides application of the circular economy in other industrial sectors including the downstream metals value chain and proposes how circular economy thinking could progress the development of complex orebodies.CITATION: Corder, G, 2018. Can the concept of the circular economy help unlock complex orebodies?, in Proceedings Complex Orebodies Conference 2018, pp 8–10 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Nov 21, 2018

By A Harding, M Chappell

Precast concrete segmental linings have enjoyed widespread use around the world, and are the lining type of choice for tunnels constructed using a shielded tunnel boring machine. However, there is significant variation in the design of such linings from one country to the next in such areas as materials, geometry, fixtures and fittings, waterproofing and reinforcement to name but a few. This arises because the speed at which the technology has developed within some countries and regions has sometimes outstripped the transfer of such technologies to the rest of the world.This paper provides some insights into the variations in lining design in different parts of the world with the aim of providing designers and constructors alike a reference for the different methods adopted. It provides a context for these developments by briefly summarising historical reviews of this subject before looking at some of the developments around the world over the last 15–20 years. The developments are presented with some reference to the reasons for implementation, and the advantages and limitations commented on. Following on from this description of the state-of-the-art, the authors also provide their own views on what developments we may see in this area in the near future.CITATION:Harding, A and Chappell, M, 2014. Precast concrete segmental tunnel linings – the state-of-the-art, in Proceedings 15th Australasian Tunnelling Conference 2014 , pp 257–266 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Sep 17, 2014

Exploring long-term future possibilities for your business and methods for achieving them are critical functions of leadership. More than ever, strategic initiatives today have to be planned and delivered in an environment of disruptive change û driven by shifting business or regulatory imperatives, new technologies and global economic change, and diverse stakeholder interests. The notion of The Future as a single inevitable outcome is obsolete. There are many possible futures. This paper explains an innovative process û known as scenario planning û to help executives in the construction and testing of longer-term strategies to deal with uncertainty.

Jan 1, 2006