Fachartikel

Ageing and wear and tear do not stop at machines and industrial plants. This can be counteracted with maintenance. What are the legal regulations and obligations? What are the risks? Answers to these questions can be found on the following pages. The topic of “Hazardous Substances in Maintenance Work” will also be the focus of a symposium of the ISSA ...

In the Rhenish mining area, RWE Power AG operates the three opencast lignite mines Inden, Hambach and Garzweiler. According to the original plans before 2016, the Hambach and Garzweiler opencast mines were scheduled to run until 2045, the Inden opencast mine until 2030. In the context of the energy turnaround, the opencast mine plans and lifetimes have been adjusted several ...

German politics on raw materials aims to influence the mineral resources sector in the long term, from the extraction to the consumption of mineral resources, with the help of strategy papers, information documents, funding programs, regulations and laws. However, for many years now, German raw material politics has not managed to present strategies and demonstrate successes that convince all stakeholders. ...

More than 100 experts met from 27th to 29th September 2023 for the conference “Environment, Energy and Raw Materials – A Turning Point in Energy and Raw Material Supply. Opportunities for the meadow industry”. It took place at the RWTH Aachen University, Aachen/Germany, and at the Energeticon in Alsdorf. The German Mining Association and the RWTH Institute for Mining, Mining Damage ...

Possible government activities aimed at securing the supplies of raw materials have lately come under scrutiny. A company levy is the obvious means of choice to finance any such actions. Would a charge of this nature be compatible with fundamental rights and the fiscal constitution? This article is based on an expert assessment prepared by the author for the Federal ...

Mining companies are the enablers of the energy transition and green future technologies, as they provide the materials urgently needed for these in increasing quantities and on a broader scale. The mining sector is a key industry with regard to many sustainability issues and is therefore confronted with complex demands from its stakeholders. Pressure is arising in particular from stricter ...

The mining industry faces a complex and pressing challenge driven by an increasing demand for raw materials and a socially demanding and globalized world. The extraction of primary raw materials has gained importance as one of the cornerstones of humanity’s sustainable development, significantly because the necessary raw materials to evolve towards a sustainable future as copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt ...

The challenges posed by the many geopolitical upheavals of the last years, as well as the need to find new ways of extracting raw materials and securing the raw material base for domestic industry, have long remained without any significant echo in Europe. Deep-rooted in relevant speeches and discussions is the aware­ness that mining per se is something dirty that ...

Geothermal fluids are a proven resource for sustainable baseload energy worldwide. Recently the fluids circulated in large volume streams in geothermal power plants have also come into focus for the potential of raw material extraction, such as Lithium. Geothermal fluids are the product of high-temperature and high-pressure water-rock interaction. This results in varying degrees of enrichment of different elements. Among ...

Noise can endanger human health and safety in different ways – both physically and psychologically. Many occupations have daily noise exposure levels of more than 85 dB(A) or peak sound pressure levels of more than 137 dB(C). If these affect the inner ear over a long period of time, it can lead to permanent damage to the so-called hair cells. ...