I am writing this Shotcrete Corner some­ where over the South Pacific Ocean on a flight from Santiago, Chile to Los Angeles. Dr. D. R. (Rusty) I have just spent 10 days in South America, Morgan first in Santiago and then in Sao Paulo State
in Brazil, participating in shotcrete seminars/conferences. The shotcrete seminar in Santiago had the theme of Fiber Reinforced Shotcrete for Underground Support. It was attended by some 80 persons including engineers, miners, contractors, suppliers, and other interest groups. The prime focus of the seminar was on the use of steel fiber-reinforced shotcrete in mining applications, since in the past few years there has been a boom in this technology in mining in South American, particu­larly in Chile and Peru. Until recently most of the shotcrete for underground support in this region has been done with conven­tional site-batched mesh-reinforced dry-mix shotcrete. Current North American fiber shotcrete technology is, however, now start­ing to be specified and used on both civil engineering and mining projects. For example, a Canadian supplier of dry-bagged premixed steel fiber-reinforced shotcrete has formed a joint-ven­ture operation with a Chilean company and is supplying dry­bagged premix steel fiber-reinforced silica fume shotcrete to a large mining project in Chile. This form of shotcrete supply can be used for either dry-mix or wet-mix shotcrete production and provides the mine with optimal flexibility in shotcrete production.