"Because of its continuing importance in most of the world’s major metalliferous mining countries including, but not only, Australia, Canada, and the Scandinavian and South American countries, it is entirely appropriate that a book should now appear synthesizing 40 years’ accumulated international experience with modern sublevel open stoping methods. … The author…is supremely well qualified to undertake this important task…because of his directly relevant industry, applied research, teaching and consulting experience, and his extensive list of publications in the area. …Although, as the title suggests, the book has a geotechnical engineering orientation, it also contains considerable practical detail on open stoping layouts, design, and operations, and includes chapters on drilling and blasting, rock support and reinforcement, mine fill technology, and dilution control. …I believe that this book will serve multiple purposes. It will serve as a specialist textbook for mining courses at the advanced undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It will also provide an authoritative, practically oriented reference work for those involved in the industry, both in mining operations and as consulting engineers, particularly for those in the early stages of their careers and those seeking to develop new understandings and skills."—From the Foreword by Edwin T. Brown, AC, Senior Consultant, Golder Associates Pty Ltd, Brisbane, Australia and Emeritus Professor, University of Queensland, Australia