【正文】 t prone mines led to a proliferation of seismic data and the employment of specialised personnel in the field of mine seismology. Around 1996 the gold mining sector in South Africa had 24 mine seismologists to manage seismic systems, analyse and evaluate data and supply relevant information to mainly rock engineers, production personnel and mine management. Mine seismologist can be broadly defined as follows: Any person, irrespective of background and formal 13 training, whose sole responsibility is the management of seismic systems and / or the analysis and evaluation of seismic data originating from mining operations. Mine seismologists were, with the exception of two corporate seismologists, employed by the mine and integrated into the mine’s rock mechanics departments. This setup considering seismology part of rock engineering has developed from the perception that seismic information is best utilised in the department responsible for mine layout and support design. It ignores the fact that, academically, seismology forms part of geophysics, which is in some countries considered part of the geology discipline (USA) and in others part of the science of physics (Germany and France). Instead of being integrated with rock engineering, mine seismologists could have joined the prospecting divisions of mining houses and then be seconded to mines as the need arises. This would have opened up more career prospects and may have retained some of the seismologists in the field, preventing the exodus that took place in the second half of the 1990s. By mid 2021 AngloGoldLtd. (now AngloGoldAshanti) had lost all of its mine seismologists bar one on corporate level. Out of the original 24, eight changed their working field and four left the country. Gold Fields Ltd. retained three of its six experts, plus one on corporate level. Of those leaving the mines, six individuals joined existing or opened up their own consultancies, all of which are still in business today, three years later. By mid 2021, the number of minebased and employed seismologists stood at four, only one of which is on a mine not previously served in this way. The number of individuals in consultancies has recently increased to ten due to demand by Harmony GM Co. Ltd. Generally speaking, consultancies have taken over the role of service providers in the field, operating seismic works, managing the gathered data and analy sing and evaluating data for most rock burst prone mines. In this environment mine employed rock engineers bee primary customers of seismology services. They are in charge of controlling the contracts with service providers, but also carrying out basic analysis of seismic data with specialized software tools that are A closer look at the various functions executed during seismic data interpretation reveals requirements for senior rock engineering personnel whose responsibilities include seismology related tasks. There are four discernible task groups that rock engineers have to cover in such an environment: 1) Input into mine planning: Design bracket pillars for seismically active structures。M Systems and in petition to ISS International, whose main platform at that time was Unix/Linux. In 1998, the Council for Geoscience in Pretoria released SeisHazM [Kijko etal, 1998], a specialised tool for static seismic hazard assessment. This 1software was the main deliverable of SIMRAC project GAP517 and ran under WIN. It allowed users to calculate estimates of maximum expected magnitude and probability of occurrence of seismic events in different magnitude ranges, based on historic data sets recorded in an area. Since 2021, HAMERKOP Scientific Services offers a suite of programs that can perform pecialised types of analyses 15 (GutenbergRichteranalysis, EnergyMoment analysis, various statistical functions) as well as work performance modelling for a given work layout (sensitivity, location accuracy). All of these run on standard office PCs with system requirements lower than those needed for elastic rock mass model ling packages. Following the general trend, ISS International also created WIN based versions of its software for system operation, data processing and data analysis. Tools currently available are considered userfriendly as they only require moderate amounts of training and can be operated on standard office puter hardware. Programs allow even nonseismologists to obtain useful analysis results that can be bined with other geotechnical information to contribute to rock engineering solutions. The opportunity for rock engineering personnel to carry out seismological analysis on an elementary level and the availability of suitable tools partly determines the skill profile of rock engineers. It adds to their required knowledge base and should be acmodated with corresponding training needs. The Process Seismic Data Interpretation Seismic data interpretation, as a process, transforms specific inputs into specific outputs. Formally, interpretation of data is the separator situated between the two as shown in Figure 1. Any person involved with the task of interpretation needs to be familiar with the specifics of the elements entering and leaving the core function of interpretation. The tools and methods of data analysis, the raw data that has been collected with seismic monitoring systems, and the skills and knowledge of those performing the interpretation are most relevant on the input side. On the output side, emphasis rests on the information type supplied to customers and the 1Safety in Mines Research Advisory Committee, S. Africa application of knowledge gained from data. Procedures need to ensure good munication, pliance with requirements and adequate response to the information received. Customers need to be petent in the use of seismic information.