SANIRE - SANIRE Coal Mine Pillar Design Workshop

SANIRE is a national group
of the International Society
of Rock Mechanics.
Visit ISRM

SANIRE Coal Mine Pillar Design Workshop

From Wednesday 25 March 2026
To Thursday 26 March 2026

SANIRE Coal Mine Pillar Design Workshop Banner V2 20260128

SPEAKER

Professor Nielen van der Merwe

Professor Nielen van der Merwe has been in the mining industry for 50 years, with 27 years directly in practice and 23 years in a combination of research and practice as a consultant. He is the author of two books and 90 other publications. He has been awarded the SAIMM Gold Medal for 4 papers and Silver Medal once and the Salamon Award twice. He was Head of the Mining Engineering Department of the University of Pretoria and incumbent of the Centennial Chair for Rock Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand.

His leadership qualities are demonstrated by the fact that he was the last President of the South African National Group on Rock Mechanics (SANGORM) and following reconstruction, the first of the South African National Institute of Rock Engineering (SANIRE). In this capacity, he served as the Vice President for Africa of the International Society of Rock Mechanics (ISRM).

He continued promoting South Africa on the international rock stability landscape by becoming President of the ISRM (the first from Africa), and then President of the Federation of International Geo-Engineering Societies FeDIGS). He has been awarded Fellowship of the ISRM and is Fellow of the South African Academy of Engineering.

He was Head of Mining Engineering at the University of Pretoria and until recently he was a Visiting Professor at the School of Mining Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand. To him, the most interesting part of rock engineering is to move beyond the simple concept of a safety factor, and rather base designs around the concept of time related failure probability. He currently operates in consultancy on a limited scale.

On a personal note, it is almost as if Prof Nielen was destined for a career in rock Engineering, with minimum input from himself. He was born in the mining village of the Durnacol mine (Dannhauser). Then his paternal grandfather was killed in a FOR (Fall Of Rock) accident followed by serious injury in another FOR to his new grandfather. One of his friends was killed in a FOR on a gold mine and another suffered life-changing injury. He enrolled as a mining student because they offered the best bursaries and decided to concentrate on rock engineering because it fascinated him. It was only after his decision to study rock engineering that he became aware of this mining background driven by fate.

BACKGROUND

Following the tragic collapse of the Coalbrook Colliery in 1960, Salamon and Munro published their well-known equation for pillar strength in 1967. This equation became the statutory basis for coal pillar design and was later adapted for use in hard-rock mines.

In the years that followed, further collapses occurred, fortunately without loss of life and the statistical database of collapsed pillars used by Salamon and Munro continued to grow. There are now 85 documented collapse cases, compared to the 27 available in the 1960s. It also became apparent that not all coal has the same strength. The Vaal Basin, for instance, is notorious for its weak coal. Additional methods of statistical analysis were subsequently developed. The probability of failure was introduced as an indicator of stability, and it became possible to track the decay of pillar strength over time.

These concepts, both new developments and refinements of earlier ones, were documented in several publications. However, until now, there has been no course or workshop that systematically traces the evolution of these equations and culminates in the 2019 concept that pillar stability can only be realistically evaluated by tracking the decay of survival probability over time.

The SANIRE Coal Mine Pillar Design Workshop aims to fill this gap. Much of the latest work was conducted by Prof Nielen van der Merwe, who has since retired but has agreed to present this Workshop, an opportunity that is unlikely to be repeated.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

→ Rock Engineers

→ Academics

→ Consultants

→ DMPR Inspectors

Sponsorship opportunities are available for this event, offering your organisation the chance to gain visibility, connect with industry leaders, and demonstrate support for advancements in coal mine safety.

Companies interested in sponsoring this event are kindly requested to contact us for more information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Prudence Ntumelang: Administrator
Email: prudence@sanire.co.za
Tel: (011) 538 0241
Website: www.sanire.co.za

Location Birchwood Conference Centre

+ 27 (0) 11 538 0231 | Email us