News In Brief Issue 02_2019

RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, has initiated a pilot study on the possible exposure of miners to PCB. The impetus for the study was the question as to whether exposure that took place many years ago, i.e. resulting from the use of liquids containing PCB in mining until the 1980s, can be reliably detected in the blood. A new detection method was ...

On 23rd January 2019, the Hard Coal -Association (GVSt), Essen/Germany, hosted “200 years of industrial coal mining in Germany”. Jürgen-Johann Rupp, President of the GVSt and Member of the Board at RAG Aktiengesellschaft, welcomed around 150 attendees to the Casino restaurant on the Zollverein former mining complex (Figure 1). In his opening speech, President of the German Industrial Union for ...

In India, a population of more than 1.3 bn combined with strong economic growth are creating a huge demand for goods, services and raw materials. Developing the infrastructure, in particular unlimited access to electricity in rural regions, continues to pose a significant challenge. On 4th February 2019, at the invitation of STEAG GmbH, Essen/Germany, Prof. Andreas Pinkwart, Minister for Economic ...

It was an emotional evening in the historic machine hall of the STEAG power station, with a celebration that went into the early hours of the morning. Employees, family members, friends and former colleagues were invited to bid farewell to the founding location of Steinkohlen-Elektrizität AG (STEAG) on 19th January 2019 (Figure 1). On 31st December 2018, after almost 80 ...

In its final report, the commission failed to mention a single word on coal’s contribution to reducing CO2 emissions, even though coal has been the main contributor to emission reductions in recent decades. By the end of 2018, it had cut its use of fuel for electricity generation by half in comparison with 1990. The commission has nevertheless recommended reducing ...

The recommendation from the Commission for Growth, Structural Change and Employment to shut down half of the lignite power station capacity by 2030 and to completely end electricity generation with domestic lignite by 2038 will prematurely take away an important source of energy from Germany as an industrial centre. It will also penetrate deep into the social fabric and value ...

In 2018, lignite production in the Rhineland, Lusatia and central Germany decreased by a total of 3 % to around 166 Mt. According to preliminary calculations by the German Lignite Association (DEBRIV), Berlin/Germany, this decrease in production and use has reduced CO2 by around 5 Mt. Lignite therefore made a quantitatively significant contribution to reducing national CO2 emissions in 2018. This ...

Digitalisation, competitive pressure, social change: Trends such as these are having a significant impact on requirements for universities. The Georg Agricola Technical University (THGA) in Bochum/Germany, has been focussing on the challenges of the future for some time. In a new university development plan, which it has published at www.thga.de/hochschulentwicklung, the THGA sets out its objectives through to 2022 (Figure ...

On 4th and 5th December 2018, experts from industry, academia and leading industry associations came together on the premises of RWTH Aachen University to commence a dialogue on success factors for high performance mining. The conference was hosted by the Institute for Advanced Mining Technologies (AMT) at RWTH and was supported by VDMA Mining as co-organizer. It was the first ...

In the last few years, more and more mining companies in Africa have adopted wind and solar systems to reduce their energy costs at remote off-grid mines. In this first phase, the initial focus was on the integration capabilities as miners were afraid that adding intermittent renewables such as solar and wind could affect the reliability of power supply and ...