Normet Team Inducted into the International Mining Technology Hall of Fame

A team from Normet was inducted on February 16, 2015, into the International Mining Technology Hall of Fame in the category of Underground Support.

This prestigious award, in only the second year of the IM Technology Hall of Fame, was presented to inductees Tom Melbye, Mike Rispin, Janne Lehto and Ismael Anabalon in Denver, USA.

Mr. Tom Melbye, one of the inductees, gave the following speech.

“I would like to thank the judges and International Mining, on behalf of myself and the Normet team that is the recipient of this prestigious award. We are proud of getting this recognition for our work, development and promotion of modern wet sprayed concrete.  It’s also recognition of wet sprayed concrete in underground mining as a safe, reliable and economical solution for ground support. In the past, sprayed concrete was looked at as temporary and not durable and “dirty work” that you assigned your last resort people to. I hope that this award is a conclusive sign that sprayed concrete is industrially accepted as an important and integral part of the mining cycle. The fact today is  that sprayed concrete is every bit as good a quality as normal concrete and some of the most prestigious civil projects in the world, for example Crossrail in the UK, use sprayed concrete as final and permanent lining where  the durability requirement is 100 years. This is the proof of the Quality Assurance of modern wet sprayed concrete.”

“I would  like also to take the opportunity to thank our other colleagues who are also specific recipients of this award that could not be with us here today (Odd Bjorn Kleven, Rick Kraft and Jouko Tenhunen are busy supporting sprayed concrete work somewhere in the world). They have all played an important role in our development and success.  Last but not least, a big thanks to the whole Normet team and our clients (contractors, mining houses and clients) that have effectively employed our offering: equipment, construction chemicals, and our knowledge in their projects. Since I started to work with and develop wet sprayed concrete nearly 40 years ago it has come a long way, but still we have a way to go to develop the method further and I see room for a lot more innovation in equipment, admixtures, accelerators and application. I believe that in 10 years we will be able to commercial apply wet sprayed concrete without conventional cement as a binder and offer some new unique features that will make the method even more useful in rock support in underground space application. I hope also that we can get more use of modern wet sprayed concrete into global mining. Still a lot of mines around the world have not taken it in use nor discovered the benefits of this unique technology.”