Leading surface and underground drill manufacturer, Sandvik, held a dedicated Mining Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa from October 11-13. The theme was ‘Mastering Surface Drilling and Blasting.’ Hosted by Sandvik and supported by mining explosives major AEL and drill monitoring and guidance company Thunderbird Pacific, the event aimed to provide a different experience than traditional seminars. Joel Boman, Tools Manager for Surface Mining at Sandvik, explained: “We wanted to create an environment where the participants can leave feeling they genuinely learned something. We put together a curriculum for mining companies and contractors, and restricted the number of vendors that could attend. In my experience, the conventional seminars are very commercial and don’t provide the same step-by-step learning.”

The meeting had 112 participants from 25 different mining companies and contractors. “The response from the market as well as the engagement during the forum really impressed me,” said Jacques Britz, Marketing and Sales Manager for Sandvik Surface Mining in Africa. “I personally learned a lot from the participants. We had very healthy discussions between our own applications experts and those responsible for engineering, production, and maintenance at the mine sites.” The forum was structured around 25 sessions in a mixture of lectures, discussion groups, and workshops. Topics included choice of drilling method – rotary, top-hammer, or DTH – including the specifics on how to optimise performance and cost. It progressed to topics on compressed air, drill configuration, monitoring, data collection, and guidance systems, along with detailed sections on drill maintenance and reliability. It linked drilling with blast planning and best practices from the perspectives of blast analysis and experience. For more details see www.theminingforum.com