News in Brief Issue 02_2021

The Research Center of Post-Mining (FZN) at the TH Georg Agricola University (THGA), Bochum/Germany, has a broad field of focus. When it was established in October 2015, research focused initially on the perpetual tasks of the German coal mining industry: long-term mine water management, the management of polder areas and groundwater purification on former mine sites. In May 2019, the ...

Homeschooling, limited or digital classes, fear of losing the connection – the current situation brought about by the corona pandemic causes considerable uncertainties for many young people. Against the background of the current challenges students are now also finding it particularly difficult to make plans for the period after the high school graduation on time. This is precisely where the ...

It’s been two years since the last mines in North Rhine-Westphalia have been closed. On 21st December 2018 RAG miner handed over the last coal from the Prosper-Haniel mine in Bottrop/Germany, to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Today RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, has met all conditions to finally bid farewell to the underground world (Figure 1). “All of this in difficult times – ...

The energy company STEAG GmbH, -Essen/Germany, notified on 2nd February 2021 the Federal Network Agency of its plan to permanently shut down its two power plant units Weiher 3 and Bexbach in the Saarland (Figure 1). The statutory publication on the transparency platform took place promptly following the notification. Previously, both units had only been registered for temporary shutdown. The ...

With effect from 1st January 2021, industrial engineer Matthias Ohl (Figure 1) has taken up the post of Technical Director at STEAG Fernwärme GmbH, an Essen-based subsidiary of the energy company STEAG GmbH. “STEAG Fernwärme is remarkably customer-focused. That provides an ideal breeding ground for new business models,” Ohl remarks in explaining what motivated him to take on a new ...

Essen-based energy company STEAG GmbH sells its Romanian Crucea onshore wind farm (Figure 1) to the Romanian renewable energy producer Hidroelectrica. This has to be seen in context with STEAG’s strategic self-realignment which in reference to the company’s activities on the wind sector sees concentration on project development and providing operational services with the French wind energy market especially in ...

Our underground is on the move. However, the shocks are often so small and spatially restricted that they are only detectable for very sensitive sensors. Even where mining was once conducted and people interfered with the natural geology and deposits, it may subsequently cause microseismic shocks. Paloma Primo, scientist at the Research Center of Post-Mining (FZN) at the TH Georg ...

Construction sites, closures, narrowed lanes: Since the end of March 2020 the patience of drivers who use the Dortmund/Witten motorway junction is being tested. But the remediation work on the A44 is urgently required, says Cedric Kamgaing Kamdom: “ Most recently we detected and backfilled a hollow space, which was around 10 m high and 3 m wide – roughly as ...

DeepGreen Metals Inc., Vancouver/Canada, which is exploring for deep-ocean poly-metallic nodules as a lower impact and more cost-effective alternative to terrestrial mining, on 29th January 2021 announced an upward revision to the nodule resource reported within the NORI-D exploration contract area held by its subsidiary, Nauru Ocean Resources, Inc. The nodule resource is now estimated as 4 Mt measured, 341 Mt indicated ...

The German Association of Industrial Energy Consumers (VIK), Berlin/Germany, has expressed concern about the unexpected problems in the European power supply on 8th January 2021. Christian Seyfert, VIK Managing Director: “The incident on 8th January is unfortunately not the first of its kind, but it must be a warning to us all to not lose sight of the topic of ...