Анастасия Литвинова

In October, Polyus Aldan JSC, the oldest gold mining enterprise of our country, set a new mining record – 5 tons of this precious metal has been produced since the beginning of the year. In connection with this, ”Forpost” decided to ask Aleksey Noskov, the Managing Director of the company, a few related questions: how did they manage to yield such an impressive result, what is the effect of production increase on gold reserves of our country, when do we catch up on Australia and surpass production volumes that Australia has already reached.

Gold is one of the first metals to become known to mankind. In the Ancient Egypt, it was considered a part of Ra, the sun God. For this reason, the precious metal was accessible only to the pharaohs, their family members and the priests.

The Second Russian-British Raw Materials Dialogue, which took place in London, has come to its end. The main purpose of this event was to create a platform that would facilitate mutually beneficial cooperation in the raw materials industry. The development of joint projects regarding the efficient use of minerals was another matter under discussion. The following issues were on the agenda: business climate improvement, providing conditions for increased investment activity, training engineers to work with mineral resources and joint field development in the isolated areas of the Far North.

Improving the subject rankings system in the universities is an important issue and the matter of interest for the management of mineral and energy companies. These are the words of Valery Yazev, the President of the Voluntary Association ”Russian Miners”, following the signing of an agreement with Quacquarelli Symonds.

British miners gave their colleagues from Saint-Petersburg an authority to certify specialists of mineral companies with such titles as ”Professional Engineer” or ”Fellow Engineer”. As for today, these titles have been officially recognized in 124 countries.

In the first nine months of this year, Kuzbass produced 190 million tons of coal, which is 5.4% more than in the same period of 2017. Exactly the same amount was exported from Russia last year. Despite the fact that black gold has lost the domestic market to natural gas, it is still in very high demand in the world, mainly because of the growth of consumption in the Asia-Pacific region. In order to provide an insight into the situation, ”Forpost” asked Oleg Kazanin, the Dean in the Department of Mining Engineering at Saint-Petersburg Mining University, a few questions, such as what role science currently plays in increasing coal production and what scientific developments may help increase the profitability of its production.

Throughout the summer, the higher school of Russia was shaken by scandals related to existing assessments of the quality of education. For example, the leaders of the 50 largest Russian universities appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a proposal to abolish the current system of state accreditation as ”outdated”. The discussion escalated even further with a beginning of the school year. In fact some universities began planning the complete rejection of traditional lectures and their replacement with online courses. First meeting of the working group involved in development of a new system of state accreditation and licensing of higher education institutions took place on October 10. ”Forpost” asked the Principal of Saint-Petersburg Mining University to comment on this issue. Under the leadership of Vladimir Litvinenko, the University got as high as number 16 in the Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings.

Students of Lanzhou University of Technology came to the Mining University this summer as interns of the International Summer School. After having finished their education upon the programme ”Innovations and development prospects of mechanical and electrical engineering”, they shared the impressions of their stay in Russia.

The Bologna process was a reason for a few adjustments made to the education systems of many countries. However, some European countries have succeeded in implementing the right to determine their own approach to the process of training future specialists, and Germany was not an exception. Carsten Drebenstedt, Director of Freiberg University of Mining and Technology, told “Forpost” about some specific features of school and university education in the country as well as about the consequences of switching to the two-level qualifications.

Copper is a metal, which first became known to mankind for several millennia BC. In nature, it is usually found in the form of nuggets or in the mineral composition. Copper colour range varies from grayish brown to goldish with pinky shade. Some other reddish shades are also possible.

Students of the AGH University of Science and Technology (Akademia Górniczo-Hutnicza im. Stanisława Staszica w Krakowie) shared their views on the practice held by the Mining University in Saint-Petersburg. The practical training took place in July in accordance with a programme ”Modern technologies of drilling, transportation and storage of oil and gas”.

Representatives of the state expressed a desire to implement good practices followed by the Mining University with regards to training of engineers.

Four German students became the participants of the International Summer School ”Geological tour of Crimea” organized by St. Petersburg Mining University.

Malachite is one of the main copper minerals. In nature, it is usually found at the deposits rich in copper.

Several international summer schools took place at the Saint-Petersburg Mining University this summer. The participants of one of the schools, named ”Engineering geodesy: theory and practice”, were students from Lebanon. ”Forpost” surveyed the students in order to find out what they thought about Saint-Petersburg, education in Russia, as well as what were their expectations from the trip and whether they aligned with reality.

John Bolton, National Security Advisor of the United States, in his speech at the briefing in Kyiv once again urged European countries to look for new alternatives to the «Nord Stream 2»