It gives us great pleasure and immense happiness to publish a scholarly proceedings volume of the selected papers presented at the 26th International Symposium on Mine Planning & Equipment Selection (MPES) in the form of a Special Issue to the International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment. MPES’17 was jointly organised by a consortium of universities composing of the host university, Division of Mining and Geotechnical Engineering and Division of Operation and Maintenance Engineering, Luleå University of Technology and was staged in Luleå, Sweden during August 29-31, 2017.
This symposium was designed to provide a forum for the presentation, discussion, and debate of state-of-the-art and emerging technologies in the field of mining. Authors from over several countries with backgrounds in science, technology, and management representing government, industry and academia concerned with energy and mineral production have contributed to these proceedings.
The special issue focuses on various topics of mining traditionally spanned several research areas and a wide range of high quality papers have been presented. Major topics covered included are: Mining; Rock Mechanics; Environmental Management; Mine Planning; Optimisation; Mining Technology; Mine Mechanisation; Mineral Economics; Geo-statistics. The theme of the MPEC’17 and the Special Issue are “Innovative Research in Excavation Processes, Stability and Productivity Enhancement in Mines” and this volume has a total seven (7) high quality papers in it.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all contributors and authors for submitting high quality papers. Special thanks to our reviewers, sponsors, supporters, exhibitors, conference speakers and special guests who have made the MPES’17 a great success!
We look forward to assembling again this year in Santiago, Chile.
Sincerely,