History of Outbursts in Australia and Current Management Controls

Outbursts have been recognized as an inherent, world wide mining related phenomenon since the 1850’s. The level of understanding has grown and developed as Mining Engineers and Geologists have been able to gain more understanding of coal seam characteristics and measure or test various coal or seam parameters such as seam gas content, seam gas pressure, coal strength and depth of cover. This paper outlines some of the concepts associated with understanding the factors, which contribute to outbursts and details more specifically the nature of outbursts experienced in Australia, especially for the Bulli Coal Seam. A number of key outburst incidents, which have had a distinct bearing on outbursts management concepts, are considered along with the current outburst management approach.