Minefill 2020-2021

Abstract

The series of International Symposium on Mining with Backfill (Minefill) explores both the theor etical and practical aspects of the application of mine fill, with many case studies from both under ground and open-pit mines. Minefill attendees include mining practitioners, engineering students, operating and regulatory professionals, consultants, academics, researchers, and interested indi viduals and groups from within the wider community. There are presentations from people from around the world working in very diverse environments, with a range of local expertise showing their unique problems but common solutions.Since the first Symposium held in Mount Isa in 1973, the series has had 12 editions. Since 1998 it has a form of a triennial symposium being held most frequently in Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the United States.The Symposium topics evolve with the development of trends in mine fill technologies, overall mining problems, hazards, environmental standards, etc.In the current edition of the Symposium Minefill 2020-2021, the following range of detailed themes has been proposed: ➢ Legal, safety, environmental and financial drivers for backfill ➢ Mine fill geomechanics, numerical modeling, the interaction between backfill and rock mass ➢ Bulkhead capacity and fill strategies ➢ Binders, admixtures, and other chemicals to improve fill performance ➢ Backfill reticulation: pumping, piping, hydraulic analyses ➢ Field fill mass blast and stress monitoring before and after exposure and data analysis ➢ Laboratory testing on static and dynamic behaviors of backfill ➢ Hazard and risk control practices in backfill application ➢ Application of new technology and new equipment in mining with backfill ➢ Influence of mining with backfill on the mitigation of subsidence related hazards ➢ Case studies. This year, the Symposium is organized in the Silesia Coal Region in Poland, where hydraulic fill has been used for the first time in the world. Originally, the Symposium was planned for 2020, but due to the extraordinary epidemic situation related to COVID-19 (SARS-Cov-2 virus), the conference was moved to 2021, with the name of the Symposium being Minefill 2020-2021. The organization of the Symposium was adopted in a remote form on a specially dedicated platform.Polish underground mines of salt, base metals, and coal have used sand, gravel, underground waste rock, tailing, smelter slag, and coal combustion by-products since the end of the 19th century to fill underground voids. Fills used in coal mines have evolved from early loosely dumped rock, ash, and slag through hydraulically placed sand fill (in the early 1880s), pneu matic (the year 1920), and throwing (the year 1947) stowing up to today's hydraulically trans ported, densified fills with fly ash, tailing and flue-gas desulphurisation by-products. The use of fly ash, slimes, and water mixture as compaction grout of roof fall materials in gob area