Archive News In Brief

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 ...

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 ...