Associated Event
17–19 November 2026 | Sofitel Brisbane Central | Brisbane, Australia
Assessing the Capacity of Ground Support Systems Workshop
16 November 2026 | Brisbane, Australia
Workshop Co-facilitators
Dr Daniel Cumming-Potvin
Project Lead – mXrap
The Australian Centre for Geomechanics, The University of Western Australia
Daniel completed his Bachelor of Mining Engineering and PhD at The University of Western Australia in 2012 and 2018, respectively. He has worked at a number of underground metal mines in Australia, specialising in the areas of ground support, monitoring and mine seismicity. He is project lead for mXrap.
Professor Johan Wesseloo
Director
Australian Centre for Geomechanics
Since obtaining a BEng (Civil) and MEng (Geotechnical) from The University of Pretoria, Johan has been involved in geotechnical engineering in open pit and underground environments throughout 14 countries. He commenced his career in 1998 as a geotechnical engineer at SRK Consulting in Johannesburg where his experience included open pit and underground projects in varying geotechnical conditions. In 2005 he was awarded a PhD (Geotechnical) from The University of Pretoria. Johan joined the ACG in 2007 as a Research Fellow. During his time at the ACG, Johan has been involved in research, the supervision of postgraduate students and geotechnical training. He also performs geotechnical and mining-induced seismicity reviews providing him with the valuable opportunity to visit numerous operations worldwide. Johan was instrumental in the development of the mXrap software and many of the software routines and apps available in that platform. Johan is a Fellow of The Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. He was awarded the SAIMM Gold medal in 2006 and 2016, and the SAIMM Silver Medal in 2014. In May 2019, Johan was appointed director.
Workshop Presenters
Matthew Farrington
Senior Rock Mechanics Engineer
Agnico Eagle Mines
Denisha Sewnun
PhD Student and Research Fellow
Australian Centre for Geomechanics
Denisha has more than 15 years of experience in the geomechanics aspects of open pit and underground mining projects. She has a BSc (honours) degree in Engineering Geology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a Master of Engineering degree in Geomechanics from the University of the Witwatersrand. In 2020, Denisha joined the ACG as a research fellow after having spent eight years providing consulting services for mining projects across Africa. Denisha is currently a PhD student involved in the in situ testing of ground support using blasting, which forms part of the Ground Support System Optimisation research project (GSSO3). She also assists with the Discrete Fracture Network/Block Model Limit Equilibrium Ground Support Design Tools research project and is a part of the mXrap team, where she works on the development of the Rock Mass Data Analyser application.
Workshop Notes
Following workshop conclusion, approved presentation material shall be available to the workshop attendees.
Professional Development Hours
Participants in this event will be eligible for PD hours. The ACG can provide a certificate of attendance, post-event.
Please contact the ACG at info-acg@uwa.edu.au if you have any queries.