Comparative seismology of the Witwatersrand Basin and Bushveld Complex and emerging technologies to manage the risk of rockbursting by

South Africa has two of the world’s great orebodies: the gold-bearing reefs of the Witwatersrand Basin and the platinum-bearing reefs of the Bushveld Complex. Mininginduced seismicity and its hazardous manifestation, rockbursting, were encountered in the first decade of the 20th century when gold mines reached a depth of several hundred feet below the outcrop, forming extensive excavations supported solely by small reef pillars (Cook et al., 1966). Research into the phenomena was carried out in an ad hoc way until the 1960s, when the first seismic monitoring systems were installed. Bushveld Complex seismicity has only become a source of concern more recently, as mining depths approached 1 km. A few surface seismometer stations were established in the 1980s. Systematic research commenced in the 1990s with the installation of the first underground and mine-wide networks. It is hoped that rockbursting can be prevented from becoming a serious problem in Bushveld Complex mines by applying the hard-won experience gained in the Witwatersrand Basin. In this paper we review the substantial body of work carried out in the past decade, much of it by researchers at CSIR Mining Technology under the auspices of the SIMRAC, DeepMine and PlatMine research programmes. The opportunities to transfer knowledge and technologies from a sedimentary to an igneous environment are assessed, and emerging technologies that may ameliorate the risk of rockbursting are identified.