Associated Event
27th International Conference on Paste, Thickened and Filtered Tailings
8–10 April 2025 | Swakopmund, Namibia
Mine Fill Workshop
11 April 2025 | Swakopmund, Namibia
This workshop will run alongside the main Paste 2025 conference. Keep an eye on this page for updates as they become available.
Workshop Facilitator and Presenter
Dr Ryan Veenstra
Principal Backfill Specialist
Gold Fields, Australia
Ryan is a principal backfill specialist, providing technical and operational expertise and leadership for Gold Fields underground operations and projects. Over the last 20 years, he has been involved in backfill as an academic, consultant, and industry engineer (both in operations and corporate spaces). His expertise and experience cover the entire backfill system with a particular speciality in backfill geomechanics. He has a geological engineering degree from the University of Waterloo and holds a PhD in civil engineering from the University of Toronto.
Presenters Include
Peter Andrews
Vice President Geotechnical and Backfill
Gold Fields Australia, Australia
Peter has over 20 years of experience in the mining industry in both operating and consulting capacities. He has a broad range of experience with specific expertise in soil and rock mechanics in the geotechnical engineering field. Over this period, he has obtained international industry experience, having worked on a number of large open pit operations in Australia, New Guinea, Zambia, Ghana, and South America in material types ranging from weak sediments to hard rock environments. He specialises in geotechnical optimisation to extract additional value from operating pits.
Tony Grice
Global Leader – Backfill / Principal Mining Consultant
AMC Consultants, Canada
Tony has over 40 years of broad global experience in mining. This experience spans underground mine production, quarrying, scheduling, planning, and technical computing. He has specialised in mine backfill systems for over 30 years and is a leading expert. He consults on all areas of backfill from selection, design, and implementation through to operational support, technical audits, and training. He is a co-author of two books Handbook on Mine Fill and Paste & Thickened Tailings: A Guide (3rd edn).
Sue Longo
Principal and Senior Project Manager
WSP, Canada
Sue is a principal and senior project manager with over 20 years’ experience in domestic and international mining projects, with a focus on backfill and tailings disposal in the mining, power and oil sand industries. Sue has worked on conceptual, feasibility and detailed engineering design mandates, as well as start-up and commissioning assignments and operation of pilot plants. She has
acted as the design and site lead on a multimillion dollar contracted backfill delivery program for a closed uranium and gold mines in Canada.
Dr Angus Paterson
Director
Paterson & Cooke, South Africa
Dr Angus Paterson is the managing director of the Cape Town office of Paterson & Cooke, having founded the company together with Dr Robert Cooke in 1991. Angus completed his civil engineering degree at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, in 1984 and completed his PhD in 1991. His research work focussed on the flow behaviour of high concentration non-Newtonian backfill slurries, and this remains a core interest of his.
He is a registered professional engineer and is actively involved in engineering projects as well as providing hydraulic oversight and expertise on a wide range of slurry pipeline applications. He regularly presents courses on slurry pipeline technology and deep mine backfilling.
Bruno Salvoldi
Senior Engineer
Paterson & Cooke, South Africa
Bruno has a master’s degree in civil engineering specialising in concrete and cement technology and he now specialises in its application to backfill. He is part of the Paterson & Cooke backfill group and is involved globally with problematic backfill applications related to geochemistry and cement chemistry. Bruno works in Cape Town offices as a senior engineer and leads the mine backfill department which covers the African operations. He has been involved in the mining industry since 2011 and has completed projects from conceptual level through to detailed engineering, implementation and commissioning.
Steven Wilson
Head of Operations
Rosh Pinah Zinc, New Zealand
Steven is the head of operations for the Rosh Pinah Zinc mine in Southern Namibia. Steven has a Bachelor’s degree in mining engineering from Western Australian School of Mines, Curtin University, a Bachelor’s degree in commerce from Curtin University and a Master of Business Law from Southern Cross University. Steven is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. He started as head of operations at Rosh Pinah Zinc in May 2024 after five years as technical services manager for Khoemacau Copper Mining in Botswana. Steven’s experience also includes mines in Australia, Ghana, Indonesia, and New Zealand in technical and management roles. Steven is working closely with the Rosh Pinah team and consultants on the construction and operational readiness of the Rosh Pinah Paste fill system for commissioning in early 2025.
On the horizon…
Comprehensive Handbook on Mine Fill
Background
Co-editors Professor Yves Potvin and Dr Ryan Veenstra, together with worldwide mine fill experts, are writing a new and comprehensive technical publication to examine the evolution of mine fill practice over the last two decades. This handbook seeks to advance the safe, efficient and economic application of fill within the mining community.
Content
This comprehensive publication will explore both the theoretical and practical aspects of mine fill application with a range of examples covering:
Mine Fill Within the Mining and Tailings Life Cycle
Co-editors
Professor Yves Potvin
Professor of Mining Geomechanics
Australian Centre for Geomechanics
Dr Ryan Veenstra
Global Backfill Specialist
Gold Fields
Fundamentals
- Mine fill constitutive materials
- Classification and dewatering of tailings
- Fluid mechanics of mine fill
- Geomechanics of mine fill
Operation
- Mine fill placement and risk mitigation
- Mine fill management
Design
- Mine fill exposure stability
- Cemented rockfill systems
- Hydraulic fill systems
- Cemented paste mine fill systems
- Underground distribution systems
- Early age behaviour of hydraulic and paste fill and their containment
Bronze Sponsors
Readership
This publication will be a valuable reference for mining practitioners, early career geotechnical engineers, operating and regulatory professionals, consultants, academics, researchers and other mine fill peers.