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Geotechnical News • December 2018
Recap of Mining Geotechnique Initiatives in 2018
G. Ward Wilson, Nicholas Beier, Dave Sego, Paul Simms, Bruno Bussière
To begin, we would like to give a
hearty congratulations to all 2018
Canadian Geotechnical Society (CGS)
Award winners and honorees. In par-
ticular, we are most pleased to recog-
nize Dr. Michel Aubertin, this year’s
prestigious Leggett Award winner, for
his significant lifelong contributions to
the geotechnical field in Canada. Sev-
eral years ago, Dr. Aubertin and other
CGS members recognized a need to
establish an area focusing on mining
geotechnique, and he led the initiative
to propose the organization of a tech-
nical committee within the CGS.
The Technical Committee on Mining
Geotechnique was created by the CGS
Board of Directors in October 2011,
with Dr. Aubertin as the inaugural
committee chair. The mandate of the
Committee is as follows:
• Organize and coordinate sessions
on Mining Geotechnique at the
annual Canadian Geotechnical
Conference, in collaboration with
the Technical Divisions of CGS;
• Act as a forum for discussion
between industry, academics, and
students on issues of research, edu-
cation, and training;
• Promote awareness of Mining
Geotechnique within the CGS, the
geoscience community, and related
fields;
• Liaise between CGS and other
mining-related national and inter-
national organizations;
• Help publicize the importance of
Mining Geotechnique to the Cana-
dian public; and
• Contribute to efforts that may be
beneficial to the Mining Geotech-
nique community.
Dr. Paul Simms was the committee
chair between 2015 and 2018, and Dr.
Thomas Pabst is the current commit-
tee chair. The Technical Committee
on Mining Geotechnique will aim to
increase the interaction of industry and
academic researchers, and to provide
added value to the general CGS mem-
bership. The committee is actively
seeking a vice-chair from industry. If
you have any interest in joining the
committee, please contact Dr. Pabst at
Mining geotechnique has gained more
visibility within the past few years. At
GeoEdmonton 2018, there were five
sessions presenting various aspects of
mining geotechnique in research and
practice. Recently in a joint collabora-
tion, the NRC Research Press and the
Canadian Geotechnical Journal chose
a mining geotechnique research article
to be featured among its Editor’s
Choice 2018 papers (to be released on
the NRC Research Press website in
January 2019). The Editor’s Choice
Award is a means of highlighting
articles of particularly high caliber and
topical importance. Further, in the lat-
ter half of 2018, we have had several
high impact conferences regarding
mining geotechnique.
In June, the Université du Québec en
Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) and
the Canadian Institute of Mining, Met-
allurgy and Petroleum (CIM) hosted
Symposium 2018 on Mines and the
Environment in Rouyn-Noranda, Qué-
bec. With 420 delegates, the Sympo-
sium also offered three short courses
related to applied mineralogy, mine
waste treatment and mine site recla-
mation, as well as surface and under-
ground site visits. The Symposium is
the result of a collaboration between
the Research Institute on Mines and
Environment (RIME) UQAT-Poly-
technique, the Unité de Recherche et
de Service en Technologie Minérale
(URSTM), and many government
actors and mining companies. The
objectives of the Symposium are to
share recent knowledge and research
developments and to discuss common
practices to find solutions that recon-
cile profitability and environmental
protection.
In October, 350 mine waste managers,
engineers, regulators and researchers
gathered at Keystone, Colorado, for
the 22nd International Conference on
Tailings and Mine Waste. Colorado
State University hosted the confer-
ence, which provided attendees an
opportunity to discuss the latest devel-
opments in tailings and mine waste
management. Presentations covered an
array of topics related to the engineer-
ing and management of tailings and
mine waste, including case histories,
design, operation, and disposal for
mine waste management, geotechni-
cal considerations, liners, covers and
barriers for waste control, reclamation
and remediation of mine impacted
sites, oil sands issues, surface water
and groundwater management and
geochemistry, and policies, proce-
dures and public safety. This confer-
ence began in 1978 at Colorado State
University and is co-hosted with the
University of Alberta and University
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