Professor Nielen van der Merwe has b
een 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 Awa
rd twice. He was Head of the Mining Engineering Department of the Universit
y of Pretoria and incumbent of the Centennial Chair for Rock Engineering at
the University of the Witwatersrand.
His leadership qualities are d
emonstrated by the fact that he was the last President of the South African
National Group on Rock Mechanics (SANGORM) and following reconstruction, t
he first of the South African National Institute of Rock Engineering (SANIR
E). In this capacity, he served as the Vice President for Africa of the Int
ernational Society of Rock Mechanics (ISRM).
He continued promoting S
outh Africa on the international rock stability landscape by becoming Presi
dent of the ISRM (the first from Africa), and then President of the Federat
ion of International Geo-Engineering Societies FeDIGS). He has been awarded
Fellowship of the ISRM and is Fellow of the South African Academy of Engin
eering.
He was Head of Mining Engineering at the University of Pretor
ia and until recently he was a Visiting Professor at the School of Mining E
ngineering at the University of the Witwatersrand. To him, the most interes
ting part of rock engineering is to move beyond the simple concept of a saf
ety factor, and rather base designs around the concept of time related fail
ure 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 gr
andfather was killed in a FOR (Fall Of Rock) accident followed by serious i
njury 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 enrol
led 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 m
ining background driven by fate.
BACKGROUND
Following the
tragic collapse of the Coalbrook Colliery in 1960, Salamon and Munro publis
hed their well-known equation for pillar strength in 1967. This equation be
came the statutory basis for coal pillar design and was later adapted for u
se in hard-rock mines.
In the years that followed,
further collapses occurred, fortunately without loss of life and the stati
stical database of collapsed pillars used by Salamon and Munro continued to
grow. There are now 85 documented collapse cases, compared to the 27 avail
able in the 1960s. It also became apparent that not all coal has the same s
trength. The Vaal Basin, for instance, is notorious for its weak coal. &nbs
p;Additional methods of statistical analysis were subsequently developed. T
he probability of failure was introduced as an indicator of stability, and
it became possible to track the decay of pillar strength over time.<
/div>
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 evoluti
on of these equations and culminates in the 2019 concept that pillar stabil
ity can only be realistically evaluated by tracking the decay of survival p
robability over time.
The SANIRE C
oal Mine Pillar Design Workshop aims to fill this gap. Much of the latest w
ork was conducted by Prof Nielen van der Merwe, who has since retired but h
as agreed to present this Workshop, an opportunity that is unlikely to be r
epeated.
W
HO SHOULD ATTEND
→ Rock Engineers
→ Academics
→ Consultants
→ DMPR Inspectors<
/span>
Sponsorship opportunities are available for this event, offering yo
ur organisation the chance to gain visibility, connect with industry leader
s, 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:
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Professor Ni
elen van der Merwe