It is the first time the symposium is to be hosted outside China, organiser Dr Ting Ren said.

The symposium will be attended by a large delegation from China consisting of top researchers and professors from its leading universities, research institutes and mining companies, he said.

“This will be a great opportunity for Australian mine operators and researchers to share their knowledge and experiences in ‘green mining’, particularly deep and multi-seam coal resources,” Ren told ILN.

The symposium will be supported by UOW and sponsored by local and Chinese companies.

Sponsorships are available for the symposium, or for product or service exhibitions, Ren said.

“This will be a great opportunity for companies to expand their business into the vast Chinese coal mining sectors,” he said.

Abstracts of 300 words are invited prior to August 31 on the theory and practice of “green mining”, particularly in stress distribution, caving and surface subsidence; backfill methods; roadway and strata support methods and technologies; and integrated extraction of coal and coal seam gas under multi-seam conditions.

Other areas include gas emission mechanism in disturbed strata after mining; characteristics of strata stress in deep mines; mine micro-seismics and rock outburst-wind blast; and coal mine methane drainage and utilisation.

The conference will be facilitated by the newly established Centre for Infrastructure Protection and Mining Safety (CIPMS) of CME, the Engineering Faculty of UOW, and the State Key Laboratory.

Further details of the symposium are available at the conference website: http://greenmining.cumt.edu.cn/ or contact Dr Ting Ren email: tren@uow.edu.au