RAG Aktiengesellschaft

The Technical University Georg Agricola (THGA), Bochum/Germany, appointed Peter Schrimpf as honorary senator for his excellent accomplishments as patron of the university. A special honour was bestowed on the CEO of RAG Aktiengesellschaft and long-standing Chairman of the University Council. He is only the third honorary senator in the university’s history – the title was last awarded in 2002.

The training mine in Recklinghausen/Germany is to be the biggest adventure mine for coal in Germany. For this purpose, the Ruhr Regional Association (RVR), the city of Recklinghausen and RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen, concluded a corresponding cooperation agreement.

The RVR has since taken over the area of the training mine under mining supervision from RAG. The purchase agreement between RVR and RAG was signed recently. The sponsoring association took over the 7 ha area in order to maintain it and open it up to visitors. The District Government of Arnsberg, which is responsible for mining in the state, already approved the continued operation of the training mine by the sponsoring association. At the end of 2021 it will be examined whether the training mine can be operated as a visitor mine over the long term.

The RAG will use the training mine for training activities, e.g. for the mine rescue team, and also pay for it until at least the end of 2021. The city of Recklinghausen undertakes to make up the deficit of the sponsoring association up to 40,000 €/a.

A mine that includes everything in the original form (1,400 m long and 17 m deep), which makes up the coal mining sector, belongs to the training mine. This includes three face advances, as well as longwalls. A shaft is also present and the tunnel system is ventilated like an active mine. The mining equipment, such as plane, shearer loaders and ram-type machines, on which the trainees of RAG previously practised, are fully operational. This way visitors can experience the mining processes on functioning machines first-hand.

In combination with the Museum of Electricity and Life, the Hoheward landscape park, the Hochlarmark district park and the Dragon Bridge, which are in the vicinity, an attractive tourism offer comes to life in the north of the Ruhr metropolitan region.

The RVR, the city of Recklinghausen, RAG and the sponsoring association presented the cooperative venture for the visitor and adventure mine on 1st October 2019 (Figure 1). (RAG/Si.)

On 1st August 2019, Werner Grigo became Director of the newly-created central unit of Permit Management at RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany. Grigo previously worked as a head officer in the area of Mining Sustainability in the Arnsberg District Government.

The supervisory board of RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, is welcoming two new members. Lord Mayor of Herne Frank Dudda and Georg Maringer, vice-president for administration and economic management at the University of Applied Sciences (htw) in the Saar region, have now been appointed to the Supervisory Board. Dudda succeeds Joachim Poß as employee representative. Maringer is taking up the office of shareholder representative from Klaus Meiser, president of the state parliament of Saarland.

Michael Drobniewski has been deputy director of the technical and logistical services division (BT) since 1st May 2019. In this role, he will become familiar with the tasks of a plant manager and, from next year, manage the independent water drainage facility as a new organisational entity. Since 1st May 2019, Michael Göge has been Operational Director for mine water drainage in the BT service division.

On 1st May 2019, Thomas Gunkel succeeded Rainer Gentz, who stood down on 30th April 2019 as deputy head of the central management.

On 1st July 2019, Michael Hofbeck succeeded Werner Murlat, who stepped down on 30th June 2019, as manager of the purchasing division in the commercial services division.

Supervisory Board, Board of Management, Works Council and employees of RAG Aktiengesellschaft and the Gesamtverband Steinkohle e. V. (GVSt, German Coal Association) are in mourning for Prof. Dr. Gerhard Neipp. From 1995 to 1999, he was the Chairman of the Board of RAG, and also a member of the Board of the German Coal Association (GVSt), of which he was President from 1997 to 1999.

Neipp passed away on 16th July 2019 at the age of 79. His period of office saw the merging of the entire German coal mining industry in the RAG subsidiary Deutsche Steinkohle AG (DSK), of which he became Chairman of the Supervisory Board. During this period, RAG developed to become an internationally operating and respected corporation. In addition, Prof. Dr. Gerhard Neipp made a decisive contribution to finding a compromise in coal policy between politics, business and workforce representatives in 1997, which also guaranteed social compatibility for future mine closures.

“The name of Gerhard Neipp will thus forever be linked with the socially compatible adaptation of German coal mining,” said RAG Chairman of the Board Peter Schrimpf in appreciation of his services. (RAG/Si.)

Following a serious illness, Dr. Werner Müller passed away on 15th July 2019 in Essen/Germany at the age of 73 years. He leaves behind his wife and two grown-up children.

Until May 2018, the former Federal Minister of Economics was still actively involved in the world of work as the Chairman of the Board of the RAG Foundation, and as Chairman of the Supervisory Boards of Evonik Industries AG and RAG Aktiengesellschaft. His cancer then forced him to reduce his professional activity.

As Honorary Chairman of the Supervisory Board, he remained closely associated with Evonik until the end. “Werner Müller founded Evonik, led the company and played a decisive role in making the corporation what it is today,” said Christian Kullmann, Chairman of the Board at Evonik. “Without Werner Müller, Evonik would not exist. We will always be grateful to him for his life’s work and bow our heads in great sadness at his passing.”

“We respect Werner Müller for his lifetime achievements. As the founder of the RAG Foundation, he played a decisive role in positively steering the destiny of thousands of miners and the mining regions. We will miss him very much as a great thinker and human being,” said Bernd Tönjes, who succeeded Müller as Chairman of the Board of the RAG Foundation and as Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Evonik. He explained that Müller always kept in view the legitimate interests of all involved.

“Werner Müller led our Supervisory Board very well with cleverness and all his experience,” said Martin Albers, Chairman of the Central Works Council at Evonik. “Even in difficult situations, he continually succeeded in ensuring a good balance between the interests of the shareholders and of the workforce.”

From 1998 to 2002, Müller served as an independent Minister of Economics and Technology in the government of Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. In 2003, he became Chairman of the Board of RAG, as well as of the German Coal Association. “Werner Müller has given invaluable service to German coalmining and miners, who were always personally close to his heart,” said Peter Schrimpf, Chairman of the Board at RAG. “At the head of our Supervisory Board, he provided our company with important impetus and always ensured that the concerns of all involved were duly taken into consideration.”

Barbara Schlüter, Chairwoman of the Central Works Council at RAG, praised Müller’s service: “Werner Müller helped the coalminers to complete the abandonment of coalmining in a socially compatible and dignified manner, for which we are grateful.”

In 2007, in the course of the restructuring of RAG in conjunction with the creation of the RAG Foundation, Müller became the first Chairman of the Board of Evonik Industries AG, which he led until the end of 2008. Four years later, he was appointed Chairman of the RAG Foundation, and at the same time became Chairman of the Supervisory Boards of Evonik and RAG. As Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Evonik, he successfully floated the corporation on the stock exchange in April 2013. Upon his retirement, Werner Müller was voted Honorary Chairman by both boards. At the same time, he was also appointed Honorary Chairman of the Board of the RAG Foundation. (RAG-Stiftung/Evonik/RAG/Si.)

Perpetuity starts at the former Pluto mine in Herne-Wanne/Germany. All the elements that are needed to manage and control post-mining tasks converge at the new control room of RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany (Figure 1). The company is thus ensuring that its water-related processes run smoothly – for the protection of people and the environment.

Monitoring staff man the new control room 24 hours a day. They monitor a range of systems and their processes in the Ruhr, Saar and Ibbenbüren. In addition to performing weather-related monitoring of the open mine, they also monitor the drainage facilities, permanent mining subsidence damage and polder systems, as well as doors and gates at all relevant locations. In the future, an innovative system developed in cooperation with the TH Georg Agricola University (THGA) in Bochum/Germany to monitor rises in the mine water level will play an important role. The monitoring carried out provides information such as the flow speed, composition and flooding of the mine water. As well as the perpetual obligations, all monitoring activities are being transferred to the control room at Pluto in May 2019 in the course of the decommissioning of the Prosper-Haniel mine. Since there will be a lot of important data in one place, maximum security is required.

Special visualisation technology is used for this purpose. It is designed for 24/7 operation and involves a large wall of 14 screens measuring 10 m wide and 2 m high. All key information is displayed on the wall graphically. The information is shown automatically and based on events. If there is a fault, e. g., monitoring staff will be shown the relevant information and instructions. At one of the four workstations, each equipped with five screens, monitoring staff investigate the fault in more detail and alert the responsible employees or on-call service. Behind the visualisation is an innovative platform in the control room system that links together all the data to allow a clear analysis. The system is modular and can be expanded to accommodate further tasks in the future.

The building has 1,700 m² of usable space. It has its own emergency power system, so even if there is a regional power failure, the key monitoring processes will be able to continue running for up to a week. The data is processed and stored by systems in a redundant design: If a component in the process chain fails, the control room remains fully functional. TÜV Rheinland was involved in the construction of the control room right from the start. There are strict requirements. These include operation management and contingency plans, as well as the relevant documentation. (RAG/Si.)

The new CFO at RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, is Michael Kalthoff. He succeeds Jürgen-Johann Rupp, who has been appointed CFO of the RAG-Stiftung. The RAG Aktiengesellschaft Supervisory Board decided on this appointment at its meeting on 4th April 2019. Kalthoff has been involved in mining and RAG for many years. After completing his studies, he held various positions at Ruhrkohle Bergbau AG and Deutsche Steinkohle AG; his final position was as head of Accounting. In 2008, Kalthoff moved to the RAG-Stiftung and became head of the RAG Investment department there in 2010. He was therefore heavily involved in the subject areas and fields of activity of RAG Aktiengesellschaft.

RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, has initiated a pilot study on the possible exposure of miners to PCB. The impetus for the study was the question as to whether exposure that took place many years ago, i.e. resulting from the use of liquids containing PCB in mining until the 1980s, can be reliably detected in the blood. A new detection method was developed under the scientific leadership of the Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine (IASU) at the RWTH Aachen University hospital.

A total of 210 miners took part in the pilot study. Participants were selected randomly from a previously identified group of employees – miners active between 1947 and 1968 who had previously been in contact with liquids containing PCB. Participation was voluntary. 96 of the 210 miners were found to have been more heavily exposed to PCB while they were working than the general population. “The pilot study suggests that in years past, these miners were more heavily exposed to PCB. There is no acute risk to health according to currently applicable guide values,” explains IASU Professor Thomas Kraus (Figure 1). Exposure was not limited to any one mine.

The study did not indicate any correlation between increased PCB exposure and possible secondary illnesses. “The results show that there is no acute risk to the health of the miners who took part in the study,” emphasises RAG Deputy Chairman Peter Schrimpf. “They do show, however, that miners were previously exposed to high levels of PCB and that further research is required.”

Participants in the pilot study were offered medical support. “We encouraged participants to undergo examinations in order to reduce possible health effects to a minimum,” says Barbara Schlüter, Chair of the RAG General Works Council.

Every stage of the study was conducted in close coordination with an extensive steering committee, who developed the scientific concept for a possible study and clarified data protection issues. It was also important to consider whether gaining knowledge through the study outweighed any possible apprehension on the part of the miners. The ethics committee at RWTH came to the conclusion that the study could be carried out provided participants were offered follow-up care.

A new method was developed for the study under the scientific leadership of the IASU of the RWTH Aachen University hospital.

A total of more than 1,000 miners were invited to participate in the study. The 210 participants agreed to have their medical history examined in detail and to give blood samples.

Participants in this pilot study were offered medical support in order to identify any possible health impairments. The experts studied specific blood levels and organs that are susceptible to change as a result of PCB-related illnesses.

It would only be possible to determine whether or not there is a correlation between previous exposure to PCB and any subsequent illnesses suffered by miners by carrying out a large-scale follow-up study with several thousand participants. The steering committee responsible for initiating the pilot study will be meeting again to determine the feasibility and possible framework conditions for such a follow-up study.

Following a disaster in a Belgian mine in the 1950s, the mining authorities instructed all mining companies to switch to difficult-to-ignite hydraulic oils, which contained PCB at that time. In the period from the mid-1960s to 1986, hydraulic oils containing PCB were used underground for fire safety reasons. At that time, the hazard potential of PCB was still unknown. After scientific findings indicated that PCB could harm both health and the environment, RAG immediately replaced the liquids in question with alternatives. (RAG/Si.)

At the start of this year, Michael Göge, who until the end of 2018 had been Manager of the Mining division at the Prosper-Haniel mine of RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, began his new role in the company’s Technical and Logistics Services division at the Pluto site in Herne. As Operational Director, he will be responsible for mine water drainage during the course of this year.