Time: Commencing at 6:00 pm (with refreshments at 5.30pm)
Where: Engineers Australia, John Connell Auditorium 21 Bedford Street, North Melbourne
Cost: Free, refreshments provided
Dr Bill Bamford – Senior Principal, Coffey Information
· Videoclips of presentations on The Mine of the Future ™ program by key Rio Tinto staff will be shown.
· The Northparkes Mine will be briefly described.
· The block caving system of mass underground mining, which was pioneered in Australia at Northparkes in 1997, will be briefly explained and illustrated.
· The historical development of the “Undercutting” principle patented by Josef Wohlmeyer in 1960, and the “Mobile Miner” first suggested by David Sugden in 1970 will be briefly outlined, as will the operation of some of the machines which were later built using these principles.
· The TBS systems now being trialled by Rio Tinto represent the latest incarnations of these principles, with the Aker-Wirth TBS (Tunnel Boring System) machine using the Undercutting principle, and the Atlas-Copco MMM (Modular Mobile Mining) machine using the Mobile Miner principle.
· The recent commissioning of the Aker-Wirth TBS machine at Northparkes will be illustrated, by photos and a videoclip.
More information and registration available here:
https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/events/rio-tintos-mine-future-tm