(Chief Editor Mining Report Glückauf)
Editorial
Worldwide, but particularly in Germany, mining is caught between the conflicting demands of supplying industry and the population with mineral raw materials and ecological and social requirements. How to apply innovative technologies and processes for the sustainable extraction of minerals is therefore one of the greatest challenges facing this branch. Our latest issue of Mining Report Glückauf outlines some of the approaches being adopted in this area.
Expansion plans for surface mining projects have increasingly stringent regulatory barriers to overcome. The mining company Basalt AG has come up with a best-fit solution for all stakeholders by way of a plan for transferring operations at the Großsteinberg opencast mine below ground.
The exploration and extraction of deep-sea deposits calls for highly precise data on the position of the excavating tools and equipment. As part of the “Deep Sea Sampling” research project, the TU Bergakademie Freiberg is working on the development of corresponding measuring devices.
Digitisation and the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies now play an increasingly important role in many areas, including the management of mining operations. While in the past all kind of different disciplines had to work together, virtually as a continuation of the value-added chain, today this has to be done by the mining companies and/or the suppliers, which also means working with competitors and competing suppliers. IoT solutions and the digital transformation offer the possibility of cooperating in a constructive and goal-oriented way.
Generating usable knowledge from a mass of digitally provided information is one of the greatest challenges for today’s industry. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a process whereby digital models can be used to access a common data base so that complex projects can be planned and managed in a more efficient and transparent manner. First introduced into the building construction and infrastructure sector, this technology is now also being used by the mining industry.
As mining engineers must be fully prepared to handle data content in the context of digitisation and innovation Clausthal University of Technology has now incorporated into its curricula a study course entitled “Internet of Things and Digitisation for the Circular Economy”.
In addition to the “ISSA Mining” section, this issue of the Mining Report Glückauf is rounded off by articles on the possible applications of geophysical measurement methods with regard to near-surface old mining and the working group on heave phenomena in the German Mine Surveyors’ Association in the “Post Mining” section, as well as on the reform of mining law.
With my best regards
Dipl.-Ing. Andreas-Peter Sitte
Chief Editor Mining Report Glückauf, Essen