News In Brief 2019

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 ...

In mid-February 2019, Peter Röttgen left the Executive Board of the German Renewable Energy Association (BEE), Berlin. The BEE committee appointed Claudius da Costa Gomez from the German Biogas Association (FvB) and Wolfram Axthelm from the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) as new Members of the Executive Board.

Two hundred years of active coal mining in Germany came to an end on 21st December 2018 (Figure 1). The Franz Haniel shaft in Bottrop saw the very last lump of coal brought to the surface. Over 500 guests and guests of honour, including President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, and Minister-President of North ...

“This mine has played a significant part in writing the history of the German coal mining industry,” stressed Peter Schrimpf, CEO at RAG and Chair of the Supervisory Board at RAG Anthrazit Ibbenbüren GmbH. His comments were made at the “Final skip” ceremony held on 4th December 2018 at the von Oeynhausen shaft to mark the closure of the Ibbenbüren ...

21st December 2018 was the day that the German coal mining era came to an end in the Ruhr region. In honour of the occasion, a ceremony was held at the Prosper-Haniel mine in Bottrop, bringing around 200 years of history to a close. For over 100 of these, the industry was a defining influence both on the lives of ...

RAG Montan Immobilien GmbH, Essen/Germany, is conducting reclamation work on the site of the former Luisenthal mine on behalf of RAG Aktiengesellschaft. In the presence of representatives from politics and the town council, as well as a large crowd of residents, further demolition work officially got under way on 15th November 2018 (Figure 1). In collaboration with the town of ...

STEAG Energy Services GmbH (SES), Essen/Germany, has been enlisted jointly with Kraftanlagen Heidelberg to dismantle the core internals of the reactor vessel within the Mühleberg nuclear power plant (KKM) in Switzerland. The power station (Figure 1), situated 14 km to the west of Bern, is operated by BKW, an energy and infrastructure company with a presence in the global arena. ...

For German manufacturers of mining equipment, the domestic market now only plays a minor role in their business plans, with a total turnover expected to decline by 22 % to 90 M€ in 2018. According to Michael Schulte Strathaus (Figure 1), Chairman of VDMA Mining, Frankfurt M./Germany, the current policies demonstrate little affinity to the business of raw materials, and therefore ...

Sustainability is absolutely the trend topic today, in mining as well. The focus extends well beyond the areas of energy consumption and the use of resources. All industries are currently searching for alternative, low-priced and environmentally friendly raw materials and energy sources. Global discussions and technology transfers are the key factors in efforts to successfully encourage sustainability in mining. bauma 2019 ...

An agreement was signed during the German-Chilean Business Forum 2018 to facilitate innovation and technology transfer between providers in Germany and customers in Chile. AHK Chile and Fundación Chile’s innovation program “Expande” aim to provide a point of contact for commercial exchanges (Figure 1). To this end, AHK Chile will provide a network of contacts with the German industry and ...