Kseniia Pavlova

In accordance with the calculations done by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment of the Russian Federation, the total value of mineral resources in possession of the country amounts to approximately 93.4 trillion roubles (roughly $1.46 trillion). Undeniably, the most valuable asset is oil reserves.

For as long as four centuries, even the most experienced geologists were mistaking this mineral for a precious stone. There was a great potential for sphalerite: some samples were even more expensive than diamonds. Unfortunately, everyone had fallen for a thought the stone was a ”fake” and, consecutively, it was left forgotten for hundreds of years.

This mineral is very hard to find on the open market, even harder than some diamonds; the reasons are its rarity and high price. Before the start of the twentieth century, jewellers did not even consider it a worthy stone, neither did they bother to give it a name. Furthermore, some fifty years ago, a stone deserving to have the same level of recognition as the worlds’s most precious gems do was compromised by American scientists and undeservedly forgotten.

Beirut, Damascus, Latakia, Batroun, Tripoli - what would you think of when seeing the list of those cities? Most likely, the first things that spring to mind are military operations and counterterrorism efforts; Russians are not the exception and have similar thoughts. What do Syrian and Lebanese people think of Russia though - in particular, about higher education in the country?

The truly specific feature of this black and easily forgettable stone is that it in a matter of seconds it can transform into a shining diamond. The metal used to power mobile phones and different other kinds of gadgets is called graphite.

The wave of interest in this mineral swept over Europe in the eighteenth century. The richest people of England and France were fighting with each other for a chance to get their hands on a piece of this stone. Rare people could acquire it though, due to its extreme scarcity. This stone was used to decorate the rooms of monarchs. It set the fashion trends for noble people of that time. How could it happen that centuries later the stone’s name is associated only with a dog breed and a peninsula in the Atlantic Ocean?

This mineral has been known to humanity for thousands of years. However, its unique properties were discovered only five centuries ago through the inquiry of alchemists, which revealed that a non-base metal by nature could turn into gold.

Out of the many challenges that mining industry is facing nowadays, the Dialogue’s participants placed specific attention to whittling down deficit of skilled engineers through competency assessment and development.

A delegation from the UK, who came to St. Petersburg to participate in the Russian-British Raw Materials Dialogue, aims to destroy the negative buzz surrounding Russia that builds up in the Western media.

One of the main advantages of meetings held in the forum format is in the opportunity to establish real contacts between the scientific and business communities of two countries, achieved by switching from exchange of opinions and theoretical discussions to more practical concerns.

Each and every stylishly dressed women should have jewellery items. What stone to choose though? Most ladies would say that the answer is obvious - diamonds, but in times of the Amazons neither diamonds nor rubies were considered a stone appropriate for women.

It was the need to speed up construction works that presumably led to the first incident at St. Petersburg metro, caused by technology violations when building interstation tunnels between Lesnaya and Ploschad Muzhestva metro stations.

For over six thousand years, people have been shedding their blood to get their hands on this mineral. In ancient times, slaves were dying while trying to pull the stone from the mountain tops, caravans carrying semiprecious stone to European countries were disappearing, and even innocent bystanders who happened to catch hold of it all of a sudden were getting lost.

There is an initiative to establish an award, which would be granted annually to two researchers for exceptional scientific achievements or inventions contributing to the further development of the mining industry.

Russian and German scientists are planning to work together on improvement of the technologies of hydrogen production, storage and transportation, as well as on the issue of its subsequent generation into electricity. Will this gas become the future of the energy industry?

As stated by Mario Mehren, the CEO of a German-based Wintershall Dea, before the end of the year the companies participating in the Nord Stream 2 project are likely to receive permission from Denmark to build a gas pipeline in its territorial waters.