There are now less than three months to go until our inaugural Rapid Development Conference in the Sydney Harbour Marriott Hotel. From new approaches to shaft sinking; faster raise boring and down-reaming; advances in hard rock cutting technology and continuous mining for hard rock; rapid decline development; and the use of new mobile miner and TBM technology to tackle mine access tunnels and block cave development – interest in this area of the industry is at an all-time high so you cannot afford to miss this knowledge sharing opportunity.

The following lists some of the highlights from the varied paper presentation programme. Some speaker slots remain; as well as sponsorship opportunities and several exhibition booths – please contact the Conference Director Paul Moore at [email protected] if of interest. To register, please visit http://corporate.im-mining.com/imevents/Rapid-Development-2013.asp

• Doug Morrison, President & CEO at Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI): Improving conventional drill and blast processes – the opportunities and challenges
• Fidelis Suorineni, MIRARCO and Denis Thibodeau, Principal Consultant Rock Mechanics, Vale Base Metals Technology Development: Support selection for rapid drift development with drill and blast – methodology and a case study
• Charles Howarth, Managing Director, Herrenknecht Australia: Mechanical excavation systems in mining
• Adrian Boeing, Senior Engineer, Control & Automation, Transmin: Improving rockbreaking safety and efficiency with automation and collision avoidance technology
• Mike Rispin, Senior Vice President, Normet Group: Development in block cave mines – approaches to ground support
• Sergey Reznichenko, President & COO, SightPower: A revolutionary fully automated mineshaft inspection and monitoring system based on a mobile laser scanning technology
• Mikael Ramström, Vice President – Mechanical Rock Excavation, Atlas Copco: An update on the Mobile Miner (TBS) project
• Doug Harding, Vice President, Robbins: Improving Mining Methods through Mechanised Technology
• Chris Wilkinson, CEO – Mining Consultancy Services: Improving Productivity Through the Application of Process Based Production Management