German Raw Materials and Mining Association (VRB)

The Helmuth-Burckhardt Prize 2023 of the German Raw Materials and Mining Association (VRB), Berlin/Germany, went to two prizewinners this year, Hannah Weinbach M.Sc. and Dipl.-Ing. Daniel Sensenschmidt (Figure 1).

The German Mining Association awarded the prize to the young academics at its general meeting on 14th September 2023 in Berlin. The Burckhardt Prize has been awarded annually since 1971 for outstanding exam results in the Master’s degree in raw materials engineering or the major state examination. The award is intended to enable the prizewinner to gain further insights into mining abroad as part of a study trip.

Hannah Weinbach completed her Master’s degree at RWTH Aachen University with a “very good” grade. She gained experience abroad at university level as part of the European Mining Course with semesters abroad in Finland and the Netherlands. As part of her Master’s thesis, she successfully analysed the possible applications of geophysical measurement methods for exploring and securing legacies from old near-surface mining using the example of the former Robertshall lignite mine.

Daniel Sensenschmidt is a graduate of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. He completed his Master’s degree with “very good”. He has already gained experience abroad in the USA and Namibia. He also wrote his thesis in Namibia on “Development and economic evaluation of an underground mining concept for the Ondoto light rare earth deposit”.

Both candidates have familiarised themselves with many branches of raw materials in Germany and abroad, with Sensenschmidt having focused his studies more on ore mining and industrial minerals, while Weinbach has gained practical experience with energy raw materials and is intensively involved in post-mining issues. Both candidates have language skills and have also been involved in voluntary work during their studies.

Weinbach is now employed as a project engineer for authorisation procedures, mine planning and abandoned mines at SST Ingenieurgesellschaft GmbH in Aachen, while Sensenschmidt is employed as a mining engineer at Gebr. Knauf KG in Iphofen.

For the VRB selection committee, the decisive factor in choosing them as this year’s prize winners was that they

• can demonstrate a wide range of study specialisations, work experience and voluntary work at the same time;
• have completed their studies within the standard period of study with outstanding, very good degrees; and
• have also been able to gain a wide range of experience abroad in academia and practice.

(VRB/Si.)

At their annual conference on 28th September 2017, the Vereinigung Rohstoffe und Bergbau e. V. (VRB), Berlin/Germany, called for politicians to make a firm commitment to domestic raw material extraction. An industrialised society cannot survive without a reliable supply of various raw materials. This is especially pertinent when the economy is strongly oriented towards exports, as is the case with Germany. “Raw materials – including mining – are the first link in every industrial supply chain. This is still the case when we consider “Industry 4.0”. Even as future industrial processes become interwoven with modern information and communications technology, there will still be strong demand for the raw materials required,” said Lars Kulik, Chair of the VRB Executive Board.

To date, the federal government has rightly followed the strategy of using all three pillars of raw materials policy: Domestic mining, raw materials imports from the global markets and raw materials efficiency/recycling. However, far more research is required before we can achieve a closed circular economy. Across numerous industrial processes, only a certain proportion of secondary raw materials can be deployed without compromising the quality of the products. In addition, Germany primarily buys metallic raw materials on the world markets. The Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW) has found that the proportion of raw material imports from countries with high political risk has now risen to 62 %; this figure was just 45 % in 1995. It would therefore make sense to draw on the third pillar of raw materials policy: Germany has significant raw material resources when it comes to coal, lignite, potash and rock salt, gravel, sands and industrial minerals, as well as high-tech systems for raw material extraction. “Nearly 75 % of the required natural resources are obtained from domestic deposits. Annually, they contribute around 20 bn € to value added,” explained Kulik at the association’s annual conference.

The positive contribution made by domestic mining to reliability of supply should be explicitly acknowledged in future raw materials and energy policy, regardless of which parties come together to form a coalition. Kulik went into particular detail regarding the use of lignite as a domestic energy source and its role in the energy mix: “Because of its availability, competitiveness and major importance to the regional economy, as well as the increasing flexibility of lignite power stations in the electricity market, lignite has strong prospects for the coming years and decades.” The reliability of the electricity supply can only be assured if conventional energy sources are present – at least until methods are developed that can store energy generated by renewable sources, technologically and economically, so that residents and industry can be supplied for weeks on end. Germany can still meet its long-term climate targets despite the coal utilisation required. Coal-fired energy generation will follow a path that is compatible with climate protection goals and the energy transition over the coming decades. “Future energy policy should consider the fact that long-term climate targets are still achievable with lignite,” said Kulik. He reminded those present that the centre-left/green state government in North Rhine-Westphalia ascertained that lignite is an essential component of energy policy in their landmark decision of 2016 on the long-term continuation of open-cast mining operations in the Rhineland, and that the new state government has reiterated this.

At the VRB’s annual conference, VRB Managing Director Thorsten Diercks called for a firm political commitment on the part of federal and regional governments: “The Federal Government’s raw materials strategy is an important starting point for future raw materials policy. There are also several federal state programmes that outline the necessary objectives and measures in the raw materials sector in a comprehensive and accurate manner. The importance of reinforcing the framework conditions for domestic mining, and therefore its contribution to sustainable raw material extraction throughout Germany, remains high. This is because German environmental protection and occupational safety standards in mining can only be adopted at the international level when they are tested in practice and implemented at the national level. These standards are also partially described in the first German report for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which the VRB collaborated on and which has just been published.” (VRB/Si.)

Der Helmuth Burckhardt-Preis der Vereinigung Rohstoffe und Bergbau (VRB), Berlin, ging in diesem Jahr an den jungen Master of Science (M. Sc.) Kian Will aus Zell (Bild 4). Der Fachspitzenverband des deutschen Bergbaus sprach dem Jungakademiker anlässlich der Mitgliederversammlung am 28. September 2017 in Berlin den Preis zu. Der Burckhardt-Preis wird seit dem Jahr 1971 jährlich für hervorragende Examensleistungen im Rahmen der Masterprüfung in der Studienrichtung Bergbau und Rohstoffingenieurwesen oder der Großen Staatsprüfung verliehen. Die Auszeichnung soll es dem Preisträger ermöglichen, im Rahmen einer Studienreise weitere Einblicke in den Auslandsbergbau zu gewinnen.

Will hat sein Studium im Studiengang Rohstoffingenieurwesen an der Rheinisch-Westfälischen Technischen Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen in zehn Semestern mit sehr guten Leistungen abgeschlossen. Als Bergbaubeflissener hat Will die heimische Rohstoffgewinnung in Deutschland insbesondere am Beispiel der Erdöl- und Erdgasgewinnung sowie der Stein- und Braunkohlengewinnung über und unter Tage kennengelernt. Auslandserfahrung sammelte Will im Rahmen des European Mining Course (EMC), u. a. an der Aalto Universität Helsinki/Finnland und der TU Delft/Niederlande, sowie bei der Anfertigung seiner Examensarbeit auf der Goldmine Björkdal der Mandalay Resources in Schweden. Sein ehrenamtliches Engagement im Bereich eines Bundesfreiwilligendienstes, der ihn im Auftrag der Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) als Englischlehrer nach Vietnam führte, und als studentischer Vertreter und Sprecher des EMC, zeichnen Will zudem als sozial engagierte Persönlichkeit aus. Zurzeit absolviert Will noch ein Stipendiat und ist MBA-Studierender des Collège des Ingénieurs (CDI).

Der Preis ist mit einem Betrag von 5.000 € ausgestattet, der gemäß den Statuten zweckgebunden und innerhalb der nächsten drei Jahre für eine bergbauliche Studienreise ins Ausland einzusetzen ist. (VRB/Si.)

The Helmuth-Burckhardt Prize 2016, awarded by the German Raw Materials and Mining Association (VRB), Berlin/Germany, went to the young graduate mining engineer, Stephan Szigeti, from Freiberg.

The Fach-spitzenverband des deutschen Bergbaus (Specialist Umbrella Organisation for the German Mining Industry) presented the young academic with his prize in Berlin on 29th September 2016 as part of its general meeting (Figure 1). The Burckhardt Prize has been awarded annually since 1971 in recognition of achieving outstanding exam results either in a Master’s degree in Mining and Raw Materials Engineering or in the Große Staatsprüfung (final state examination). The accolade will give the prizewinners the opportunity to take part in a study trip to gain further insights into mining overseas.

Stephan Szigeti completed his degree in Geotechnology and Mining at TU Berg-akademie Freiberg (Freiberg University of Mining and Technology) over ten semesters and achieved excellent results. As a mining enthusiast, Mr Szigeti studied local raw materials recovery in Germany using the example of coal and lignite recovery in particular – in surface and underground ore mining. He gained experience abroad by means of various international placements, including in the lignite industry in Hungary, gold and molybdenum mining in the USA and copper mining in Cyprus. Mr Szigeti completed all of his placements while studying. His voluntary work with the Association of German Mining Engineers (RDB) and the professional organisation “Die Führungskräfte” (German Confederation of Managers) also makes Mr Szigeti stand out. Since August 2016, Mr Szigeti has been working as a Junior Mining Engineer at K+S Aktiengesellschaft in Kassel/Germany. (VRB/Si.)

Lars Kulik, Executive Board member at RWE Generation SE and RWE Power AG, has succeeded Joachim Geisler as Chairman of the Board at the VRB (German Raw Materials and Mining Association), Berlin/Germany.