The XIX International Forum-Contest of Students and Young Scientists "Topical Problems of Subsoil Use" under the auspices of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO is over. What expectations did the contestants have from participation in such a large-scale event, and most importantly: how satisfied were they?
For almost twenty years, the conference has been traditionally held by St. Petersburg Mining University. Every season there are new countries, formats of communication and actual topics. This year it was attended by over 1000 delegates from 32 countries. Careful preparation of their own scientific projects, registration of visas and air flights. All for the sake of an opportunity to get to an open discussion platform, where the problems impeding the development of mineral resources and fuel-energy complexes of Russia and the world are discussed, as well as the ways of their solution.
The leitmotif of almost all of the presentations was the assertion that in the future humanity will need far more resources than today. Not only hydrocarbons, but also copper, nickel, rare earth elements, and other metals, which are becoming more and more in demand due to the transition to the so-called green economy. But can mining companies meet the global needs of civilization? After all, the quality of ores is gradually decreasing and their depth of occurrence is increasing, which requires the introduction of more advanced technologies and the growth of personnel competence. It is this question that the young delegates at the St. Petersburg forum were trying to find the answer to.
Ibraim Conte, a student of MISIS University of Science and Technology, presented his work devoted to the research of fracture toughness coefficient of rocks under fluid saturation to the judgment of experts from leading profile companies and flagship universities.
"When calculating hydraulic fracturing of reservoir rocks - an effective method for solving the problems of developing hard-to-recover reserves - it is very important to consider that the nucleation of micro- and macro-cracks significantly changes the filtration and capacitive properties of rocks and, ultimately, affects the productivity of oil production. Therefore, to determine the parameters at which crack nucleation and propagation becomes possible is an extremely urgent task. However, among the domestic normative documents there are not even developed standards necessary to determine the fracture toughness of rocks," said Ibrahim Conte.
During the tests he revealed that water saturation results in a 14.8% decrease of the fracture toughness coefficient while oil saturation leads to a 37.4% decrease in the fracture toughness coefficient. According to the student, these and other results of his research can be used when designing hydraulic fracturing to increase oil recovery and reduce resource costs.
In the future, the young man hopes to build an engineering career in his home country of Guinea. According to him, he came to study in Russia because here you can get those competencies in the field of mining, which will accelerate the process of professional development.
"At the forum, in addition to practicing my own presentation skills, I wanted to get acquainted with the ideas of other participants and senior colleagues. This will give me a better understanding of where to move forward in my research, which areas are most in demand and promising. For example, I was very interested in the lecture by Vyacheslav Brichkin, Vice Rector of the Mining University and Head of the Metallurgy Department, on aluminum production. Considering that Guinea is a bauxite-bearing country with almost half of the world's reserves, this was very useful information for me," shared Ibrahim Conte.
Aliya Doskalieva from Karaganda Technical University named after Abylkas Saginov also received important data to continue her own research at the forum. The project of the student from Kazakhstan is devoted to remote sensing of the undermined areas of Karaganda.
"Relevance of this topic is explained by active civil and industrial construction in the city, part of the territory of which is located in the area of influence of the local coal mines. Successive mining of the coal seam suite has led to the subsidence of the earth's surface and caused processes of vertical displacement. Since 94% of the houses were built before 1990, the housing stock is being renovated today. The life of the mines has been extended until 2025, and then reclamation is expected. Already now the construction of buildings starts there, so the surveyors need to provide clear guidelines regarding dangerous areas for construction", - explained Aliya Doskalieva.
To monitor the displacement the student used the technology of satellite radar interferometry with Sentinel - 1B satellite imagery. It is based on the analysis of phase shifts between the reflected radar signals received from the surface of the spent areas at different moments of time. According to the data obtained in the course of the study, the young scientist plotted subsidence, displacement and horizontal deformations, which allowed to give an accurate prediction - the undermined territory of Karaganda in a few years will subside to a maximum displacement of 2.005 meters.
"My work is distinguished by its practical relevance for the solution of a particular problem. Since surveyors and geodesists are invited at the preliminary stage of construction, my project will not remain dust on the shelf. My colleagues and I continue to monitor, so the expert opinions at the forum were of great importance to me and can be taken into account in the future. I was able to talk to another participant who also does work based on Sentinel satellite imagery. He was using a different image processing software, Gamma, rather than Snap like me. That's very interesting, because other software can analyze data differently and provide additional features," said the student.
According to Aliya, it is her first time in St. Petersburg and she was pleasantly surprised that the forum includes a cultural program.
"The city just struck me with its architecture and atmosphere. It is staggering that almost every street of it had important historical events for the country. Catherine the Great lived here, Dostoevsky wrote his novels here, and on this square the Narodnaya Volya members who made an assassination attempt on Emperor Alexander II were executed. It's truly impressive!" - a student from Kazakhstan shared her emotions.
One of the laureates of the contest in the nomination "Physical and chemical technologies of processing of natural and technogenic raw materials" became Valeria Aburova, post-graduate student of St. Petersburg Mining University.
"High level scientific conferences help approbation of post-graduate works. For representatives of the Mining University this is an obligatory condition, fulfillment of which allows them to enter the further defense of their dissertations. At the same time students also take part in such events, especially those who expect to tie their career with scientific activity in the future. Of course, participation in forums is not the only way of approbation of research results. An equally effective way to obtain the scientific community's evaluation of the results and novelty of the work is to publish articles in scientific journals. For example, the project that I presented at the "Topical Problems of Subsoil Use" has already had two publications - in MDTI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute) and GIAB ("Mining Information and Analytical Bulletin")," emphasized Valeria Aburova.
The topic of her research concerns the influence of energy methods of impact on sulfide minerals and noble metals in carbonaceous materials in order to increase the extraction of valuable components in concentrates. The search for new technological solutions to maintain the current level of extraction and obtain conditioned concentrates is explained by the decrease in the quality of raw materials coming for processing.
"I propose to involve refractory ores and double-aggregate ores in the process. Carbonaceous products in the processing of refractory gold-bearing ores are mostly sent to tailings due to the fine embedding of particles in concentrator minerals and the inability to extract them using traditional methods, such as zoning. In this case there are considerable losses of noble metal - up to 3 grams per ton. As the main object of the study I took a sulfide carbonaceous gold ore of double tenacity, and as the energy method of exposure I chose microwave. The results of the study allowed to justify the addition of 10% magnetite for the possibility of enlargement of low-sized noble metals to a size of 20-40 microns, which will allow to subsequently extract them using traditional methods, "- summarized the graduate student.
Most of the young scientists took part in the forum directly, but a number of delegates worked online. So, graduate student of Shiraz University from Iran Leila Mahmoudi became one of the winners in the section "Physical and chemical technologies of processing of natural and technogenic raw materials" with a research dedicated to the chemical analysis of asphaltene accumulations to assess the forces of attraction and repulsion. The girl learned about the forum from a graduate of St. Petersburg Mining University, who is now successfully working in Iran.
"I decided to participate in order to get acquainted with current topics that young researchers from other countries are working on today. Being professionally involved in the formation of mineral deposits in porous media, I was particularly interested in the different perspectives on asphaltene formation that my recent research focuses on. Events like this help graduate students to better orient themselves on their scientific path, to assess their strength and level against their peers. My dream is to become an assistant professor, to teach and conduct research that contributes to the development of the chemical and petroleum industry internationally. That's why I'm here!" - Leila Mahmoudi emphasizes.
Hadi Goudarzi, Advisor on Science and Education of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic in the Russian Federation, was invited as the guest of honor from Iran to the forum.
"Our country also has a competition that selects capable students, but the fundamental difference is that it is general in nature. Young people present their knowledge in absolutely different disciplines and we select the most talented ones who then have wider opportunities for career development. However, unfortunately, there is no such narrowly focused forum where subsoil use problems are discussed. That is why I watched with great interest the event taking place at the St. Petersburg Mining University", said the advisor.
According to him, the opportunity to select the most talented and motivated scientists allows uniting the scientific and applied potential of different countries for more rational and efficient use of natural resources.
