Current Issue 01_2015

Editorial

Glückauf Magazine, which was started by the Association for Mining Interests (Vbl), was first published on 1 January 1865 as a supplement to the Essener Zeitung. The Vbl soon set up its own publishing house for the magazine. The Glückauf publishing company produced the magazine for many years thereafter and developed it into an organ of the coal mining industry. Sadly the German coal industry has been contracting for a number of decades and the list of subscribers and advertisers supporting the journal has continuously declined as a result. The ensuing financial problems saw Glückauf first being taken over by VGE-Verlag in 2006 and then by Verlag Ernst & Sohn in 2013. Over the next months it became apparent that the magazine, now being published under the name Mining Report Glückauf, once again would have to be put under new management if it was to have a sustainable and viable future. This situation, and the fact that the GVSt (German Coal Association) – with which the Vbl had merged a few years earlier – had long been editorially involved in producing the magazine, ultimately persuaded the Coal Association that it should take back the running of the journal. Glückauf Magazine has therefore, in many ways, come back home.

In view of the difficult environment in which the mining industry now has to operate we at GVSt are naturally only too aware of the fact that we have taken on something of a challenge. Our aim is to be a partner to the German coal industry until it finally ceases production at the end of 2018. At the same time we intend to give Mining Report Glückauf a future beyond 2018 by bringing on board fresh new themes, such as activities in the post-mining era, the development of former mining sites, coal utilisation and so on. Each edition will seek to focus on specific subject areas and will be published in English and in German throughout. As before, special editions of Mining Report Glückauf will also be brought out in Chinese and in Russian for distribution in those countries.

Occupational health and safety is a particularly important topic for us. This theme will occupy a segment of its own and in this regard we shall be working closely with ISSA Mining, which is the mining section of the International Social Security Association (ISSA). Mining Report Glückauf will therefore be an organ both of the GVSt and of ISSA Mining.

Technology, energy supply and raw materials will continue to play a key role regardless of the planned cessation of domestic coal production. We are living in interesting times, as the ongoing debate on the implementation of the energy transition shows, and in technology terms the German mining industry has gained a head start on the rest of the world. This has to be protected, not least for the good of our supplier sector where the companies involved have built up a leading position on the world market. What is more, the German mining industry has become a centre of expertise and plays an active role in the field of international consultancy.

Germany has always been a mining country and it will remain so. Lignite, potash, rock salt, oil, gas, earth and stone are all extracted here, and ore mining has now been resumed again. With this fact often being overlooked we can see that this sector is in need of even greater news coverage than ever.

As before, the magazine will continue to put greater focus on R&D activities and on the advances being made in this area. Without the groundwork that is done at our mining universities in Aachen, Bochum, Clausthal and Freiberg the mining industry could never have achieved the level of technical development we have seen. And we will still need technical progress of this kind if we are to advance further.

All this is connected to the theme of education and training. Mining is and will remain an important international industry. The major globally-positioned mining companies are in need of trained personnel, as even the world‘s main mining regions suffer from a skills shortage in this area. This creates wonderful career opportunities for German-trained engineers and technicians. This is why we think it is very important to take a global view of what is happening in the mining sector beyond our shores and to look at the developments under way elsewhere in the world. This will work both ways, as our readers in other countries will also gain an insight into the realities of the German mining industry.

With my best regards