Sun Internationalʼs Table Bay Hotel
Cape Town
21–25 March 2011
The 10th International Conference on Mining with Backfill will be held in 21–25 March 2011 in Cape Town, South Africa, one of the world’s most surpassingly attractive cities. Since its inception at Mount Isa in 1973, this conference series has been held in a number of major mining countries, and has thereby established itself over the decades as the key event for recording the advances in backfill technology worldwide. Thus, it provides the international exchange of recent innovations and experiences to ensure cost-effect backfill operations, which are often a well-balanced compromise between conflicting requirements.

This decennial milestone event will cover the full spectrum: from the chronological developments in backfill technology, current operations and research, to a glimpse into new applications in the near future. Prior to the conference, a one-day workshop is planned, at which leading authorities will provide a broad overview of fundamental backfill principles and insights relating to their particular disciplines. This will cover business drivers, rock mechanics requirements, backfill preparation, hydraulic transportation and placement aspects, as well as regulations, applicable standards and best practices.

The beneficial interactions between rock mass and placed backfill have shown that not only can backfilling increase extraction ratios, but it also improves safety records on those mines where it is fully integrated with the mining method. Laboratory test methods and unique, specialised in situ instrumentation coupled with numeric modelling techniques, as well as practical case studies, demonstrate the predictability and reliability of well-engineered backfill systems

Conference committee members

South African committee members:

• Mr Hartmut Ilgner – CSIR
• Mr Roger Johnson – Anglo Platinum
• Mr Shaun Murphy – AngloGold Ashanti
• Mr Pete Ferreira and Dr Rod Smart – Minova
• Mr Corne Pretorius – Sasol
• Mr William Joughin – SRK Consulting

International committee members

• Dr Rob Cooke –USA (Paterson & Cooke)
• Prof Hassani – Canada (McGill University, Chairman of the International Minefill Council)
• Mr Tony Grice – Australia (AMC - Australian Mining Consultants)