Oulu Mining Summit 2023

The world is presently facing many challenges relevant to mining such as an increasing demand on various minerals, a higher requirement for energy, and a rising CO2 release.

Mining supplies various raw materials with an increasing annual production. Because minerals resources are non-renewable, various minerals in the earth will be depleted sooner or later. At the same time, unfortunately, a vast amount of minerals is lost during mining operations.

In addition, mining production requires energy in different forms, but the energy efficiencies in mining operations are very low. To reduce ore loss and to increase energy efficiency are two great and challenging tasks for future mining.

Mining depth becomes greater, resulting in higher in-situ stresses. Consequently, the higher in-situ stresses lead to many problems (such as rock bursts, rock fall or collapse, and seismic events) and difficulties in rock drilling, rock blasting, and rock support. Most of such problems or difficulties are involved rock dynamics.

Rock mass is natural solid containing various geo-structures such as joints and faults, making both rock mass evaluation and mining in great depth difficult. Accordingly, new methods such as muography for deep mining and rock mass evaluation are necessary.

For a long term, it may be necessary to consider space mining.

Based on the above aspects, this Summit invited many experts, including several world’s top leading scientists and R&D leaders over the world. The topics of invited speeches cover most fields in mining, as follows:

• Minerals losses and energy utilization in mining industry
• New mining methods and technology
• Rock dynamics and deep mining
• Rock support
• Rock blasting and fragmentation
• Rock mass evaluation
• Case studies in mines
• Muography, space mining and mining education

Presentation schedule for Oulu Mining Summit 2023

(publication process of the videos is ongoing)

DAY 1 (14.9.2023, GMT+3)

Opening speeches
9:00-9:10
Prof. Mirja Illikainen, Welcome speech from Dean of Faculty of Technology, University of Oulu, pdf
9:10-9:30
Prof. Saija Luukkanen, Welcome speech from Head of Oulu Mining School, University of Oulu

Group 1
9:30-10:00
Prof. Jian Zhao, Caving mining and rock cavern construction
10:00-10:30
Prof. José A. Sanchidrián, A miner’s desideratum: The prediction of rock fragment sizes from blasting, video
10:30-11:00
Mr. Toochukwu Ozoji, Potentials of characteristic impedance in sustainable mining

11:00-12:00, Lunch break

Group 2
12:00-12:30
Dr. Adeyemi Aladejare, Managing risk in mining engineering – from data to digitalization, video
12:30-13:00
Mr. Marko Holma, Earth's Depths Viewed Through Cosmic Eyes: The Emerging Role of Muography in Modern Mining
13:00-13:30
Prof. Stefano Utili, The Benefits of Employing Geotechnically Optimal Pitwall Profiles, video

13:30-14:00 Break

Group 3
14:00-14:30
Dr. Sunniva Haugen, High mining technology in Boliden mines
14:30-15:00
Mr. Jari Joutsenvaara, Second life of mines – possibilities and challenges for revitalizing the mining regions
15:00-15:30
Prof. Zongxian Zhang, Challenges and possibility of increasing ore recovery and reducing energy consumption in mining engineering, video
15:30-16:00
Mr. Jari Näsi, Strategic Optimization Projects at Agnico Eagle Kittilä Mine, video, pdf
16:00-16:30
Dr. Daniel Chpolianski, Feasibility of commercially viable asteroid mining operations with a 50–200 ton iron-nickel quarry slab touching down on Earth independently, without spacecraft or landing capsule, video, pdf
16:30-17:00
Prof. Chun’an Tang, Rock Failure Process Analysis (RFPA) Principle, Model and Applications in Engineering and Science

DAY 2 (15.9.2023, GMT+3)

Group 4
09:00-09:30
Mr. Marco Arrieta Rodriguez, USING UAV PHOTOGRAMMETRY TO CALIBRATE 3D SLOPE STABILITY MODELS IN WASTE DUMP
09:30-10:00
Prof. Charlie C Li. New findings in the anchoring mechanisms of inflatable rockbolts and optimization of the installation quality
10:00-10:30
Prof. Ping Zhang, How rock mechanics can contribute to deep and sustainable underground mining?
10:30-11:00
Prof. Daniel Johansson, Recent developments within explosive engineering

11:00-12:00 Lunch break

Group 5
12:00-12:30
Dr. Hong Liu, Modelling dynamic fracture and fragmentation of rocks under impact loads and blasts with a hybrid finite-discrete element method (HFDEM)
12:30-13:00
Prof. Mikael Rinne, The state of European Mining Course
13:00-13:30
Dr. Liyuan Chi, Blast-induced broken zone on bench floor in Kevtisa open pit mine

13:30-14:00 Break

Group 6
14:00-14:30
Dr. Tobias Ladinig, Raise Caving – Mass Mining at great depth
14:30-15:00
Ms. Riika Ylitalo, Kevitsa mine blast QAQC
15:00-15:30
Prof. Saija Luukkanen, From mine to mill
15:30-16:00
Prof. Zongxian Zhang, End discussion and closing words, video

Invited Speakers (in the order of surnames)

Dr. Adeyemi Aladejare
Associate Professor at Oulu Mining School, University of Oulu. He obtained his BSc degree (First Class Honours) in Mining Engineering and MSc degree in Underground Mining Engineering from Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria in 2008 and 2012, respectively. He received the prestigious Hong Kong PhD Fellowship in 2013 and bagged PhD in Rock Mechanics from the City University of Hong Kong in 2016. To date, he has mentored many graduates and postgraduate students, with some of them already working in the academia and mining countries in Europe and beyond. His research interests include rock property characterisation, geotechnical risk and reliability, geo-data analysis and machine learning. Dr. Aladejare is a reviewer for top international journals in the field. He is actively involved in national and international research and educational activities related to mining engineering.

Mr. Marco Arrieta
Geotechnical engineer with over fourteen years of experience in the open pit mining industry. He currently leads the geotechnical department at Teck Resources – Line Creek Operation and is pursuing his PhD diving in shear strength criterion for rock fills and waste dumps based on fractal dimension, chaos, and organized complexity. His areas of expertise include shear behavior in granular materials, fractals applied to granular materials, 3D modeling and rock mechanics.

Dr. Liyuan Chi
Postdoctoral researcher at Oulu Mining School, University of Oulu. He received Ph.D. degree from Norwegian University of Science and Technology, both master’s degree and bachelor’s degree from Beijing Institute of Technology. His research interests involve the mechanism of rock blasting and improvement of blasting outcomes in open pit mines.

Mr. Daniel Chpolianski
Researcher and engineer, graduated from University at Buffalo. Daniel has focused on space mining for some years.

Dr. Sunniva Haugen
Department Manager for Boliden’s Mining Technology. She holds a PhD in mining engineering from the Norwegian University of Technology and Science in Trondheim (NTNU), Norway (1999). Within Boliden she has both been Mine Manager for three underground mines in the Boliden Area, and managed R&D-projects within the Technology department. She was project manager for the development and implementation of Bolidens underground scheduling software. She was WP-leader for Lean Mining in the Swedish Mine of The Future project. From 2012 to 2015 she was Professor in Mining at NTNU, before she re-joined Boliden.

Mr. Marko Holma
Chief Executive Officer, Muon Solutions Oy, with over 25 years of experience as a multidisciplinary exploration geologist. He specialises in mineral deposit geology, exploration technology, and cosmic-ray muography. His passion for geological disciplines spans from micro- to planetary-scale, and he is keen on technological development and its practical applications. Marko is one of the founding members of the Arctic Planetary Science Institute (APSI) and Muon Solutions Oy Ltd, a private company focused on developing applications of muography. He also works part-time at the Kerttu Saalasti Institute of the University of Oulu.

Professor Daniel Johansson
Chair Professor in Mining and Rock Engineering at LTU (Luleå University of Technology). Mining- and Rock Engineering at LTU comprises mining technology, rock engineering and rock mechanics, including rock mass properties, blasting, design of rock excavations in mining, tunnelling, and other underground constructions, as well as planning- and production processes related to both mining engineering and civil engineering (underground constructions). He is also the Director of Swebrec, Swedish Blasting Research Centre. The centre’s focus is all fields related to blasting, from explosive properties to environmental effects of blasting.

Mr. Jari Joutsenvaara
Project manager and doctoral student at the University of Oulu. He is currently coordinating the Horizon Europe project AGEMERA. His research is related to the structural change within mining regions during and after the mine closure. His passion for the topic emerged from the depths of Pyhäsalmi mine, Finland, where he started his university career nearly two decades ago in the field of underground physics. Currently, he is the research coordinator for the scientific repurposing of Pyhäsalmi mine, Callio Lab, a chair of the European Underground Laboratories Association, and a co-founder and board member of the University of Oulu research spin-off Muon Solutions Oy.

Dr. Tobias Ladinig
Senior Engineer at LKAB. He graduated at Montauniversität Leoben. He holds a PhD in rock mechanics with an emphasis on deep mining. He is currently working as a senior rock mechanics engineer in Kiruna mine at LKAB. He has been involved on various projects in the field of applied mining rock mechanics, deep mining and underground mining.

Professor Charlie Li
Professor in NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Norway. He received his PhD in rock mechanics in Lulea University of Technology (LTU) in Sweden. He worked, among others, in Boliden Mineral Ltd. Sweden before he was appointed as the chair professor of rock mechanics at NTNU. His research interests are in ground support methodology, dynamic ground support and rockburst management. Dr. Li is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences. He was the ISRM Vice President for Europe in 2015-2019.

Dr. Hongyuan Liu
Senior lecturer at University of Tasmania, a Fellow of Engineers Australia, and an editorial board member of International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Science. He completed his PhD at Lulea University of Technology in Sweden and had then worked in University of Queensland and University of Sydney. His research interest focuses on computational geomechanics, rock fragmentation and tunnelling, on which he has published more than 100 journal papers. In recent years, he has been leading an international team to develop HFDEM for modelling rock fracture (https://sites.google.com/view/hfdem/), which has claimed a series of national and international awards.

Professor Mikael Rinne
Professor at Aalto University. He graduated from TKK Helsinki (Economic Geology) in 1988 and completed his licentiate thesis 2001 at KTH, Stockholm. He worked as a consult on task related to tunnel design, mining, and nuclear waste until he defended his doctoral thesis in 2008. Since 2008, as a professor at Aalto University, he has focused on mining and rock engineering education. Rinne has supervised more than 100 master theses and five doctoral projects. He is the head of the European Mining Course (EMC) and involved in many EU and nationally funded research projects focused on mining and rock mechanics.

Dr. Jari Näsi
Development Manager at Agnico Eagle Kittilä Mine. He graduated as Mining Engineer from Aalto University. He got Master of Science degree from Geology and Doctoral degree from Process Engineer from University of Oulu. Before joining Agnico Eagle family at year 2021, Näsi worked as a Technical Services leader at Orica Finland for 6 years. He has also over 10-year experience from Outokumpu and Newcrest mining companies where he has worked in several roles in production and Innovation.

Mr. Toochukwu Ozoji
Doctoral researcher at the Oulu Mining School specializing in rock mechanics and its application in sustainable mining. His previous training comprises bachelor’s degree in Geology and master’s degree in engineering Geology. He has worked on several national and international projects with some academic publications.

Professor José A. Sanchidrián
Chair Professor at the Department of Mining Engineering and Earth Sciences, School of Mines and Energy, Technical University of Madrid. A mining engineer, he served 7 years in Spain’s Army Corps of Engineers and 10 years in the explosives industry prior to joining university. He has authored 5 books and nearly 200 journal and conference papers. His research topics are rock fragmentation, rock characterization for blasting, vibrations, and detonation and explosion physics. He is currently president of the Fragblast International Committee.

Professor Chun’an Tang
Chair Professor and Director of the Center for Rock Instability and Seismisity Research (CRISR) and the Chair of Deep Underground Engineering Research Center of Dalian University of Technology. He was also the Vice President of the Chinese Society of Rock Mechanics. He got his Ph.D in 1988. In 1991, he continued his post-doctoral work in Imperial College, London, UK (worked with Prof. J.A. Hudson). Then, as an academic visitor, he had lots of experience working in Canada, Sweden, Singapore, Switzerland and Hong Kong. He leads several major research projects in rock mechanics and is the chief scientist for a National 973 program for fundamental research. So far, he has published more than 300 technical papers and is the author of five Chinese books of rock mechanics and the principal author of “Rock Failure Mechanism” published by CRC.

Prof. Stefano Utili
Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at Newcastle University (UK) and founder of OptimalSlope Ltd (https://optimalslope.com/) which provides the software designing optimal mine pitwalls. Prof. Utili is Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineering (ICE), a member of the International Technical Committee 208 “Slope stability in engineering practice” and has published extensively on the assessment of slope stability and the design of mine pitwalls.

Prof. Saija Luukkanen
Director of the Oulu Mining School and professor of mineral processing. She came to her current position from the consulting company Pöyry, where she worked as a business development director, in Peru and Finland. During her career, she has also worked at the Geological Research Centre as a team leader and at Lafarge (France) as a project manager.

Ms. Riika Ylitalo
Mining engineer and telecommunications engineer graduated from the University of Oulu. She has more than fifteen years of experience in data processing and data quality systems, as well as four years of experience in open pit mining. Focus areas of blast optimization and blast quality control systems. She is currently working as a project manager at Geovisor Oy, which provides survey and consulting services for the needs of exploration engineering.

Professor Ping Zhang
Professor at the Division of Mining and Geotechnical Engineering, Luleå University of Technology (LTU) in Sweden. He had over 20 years’ research, education, and industry experience. Prior to joining LTU, he had worked at several universities in China and had worked on geotechnical problems in tunnelling and slope projects. After joining LTU in 2010, he has been involved with the design of ground support under rockburst condition for Swedish mining industry. He also worked part time as Specialist at LKAB in 2020-2021. His research interests include rock failure process, rock dynamics, wave propagation in jointed rock mass, ground support and numerical analysis.

Professor Zongxian Zhang
Professor at Oulu Mining School, University of Oulu. He Received Ph.D. degree from Luleå University of Technology, Sweden. Since 1986 he has worked at University of Science and Technology Beijing, Luleå University of Technology, LKAB (Swedish mining Company), University Centre in Svalbard, and University of Oulu. His research involves mining technology, rock fracture, rock blasting, mechanical rock excavation, vibration control, ore recovery and energy utilization in mining and rock engineering.

Professor Jian Zhao
Professor at Monash University in Australia. He has been carrying out teaching, research and engineering consulting rock mechanics, tunnelling and mining for over 35 years. He taught at Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, and was the professor of LMR at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences. His research and engineering interests are on rock dynamics and rock fracturing, large underground excavation, TBM tunneling, deep rock geothermal energy, and induced seismicity.

This Summit will be held online, and it is free to join.

Register to the event here

You are warmly welcome!

Additional information

Prof. Zongxian Zhang, Oulu Mining School
Zongxian.Zhang(at)oulu.fi

Post doctoral fellow Liyuan Chi, Oulu Mining School
liyuan.chi(at)oulu.fi

Research coordinator Anu Sirviö, Faculty of Technology
anu.sirvio(at)oulu.fi