On Tuesday, May 26, an online agreement was signed between the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3, London) and the International Competence Centre for Mining Engineering Education under the auspices of UNESCO, created in affiliation with St. Petersburg Mining University. The parties agreed to establish in the UK a Center for Competency Assessment in the mineral resource complex.

Most Russian educational institutions have bravely reported on a successful transition to online learning. However, reality turned out to be slightly less glowing than officials and heads of educational institutions imagined. Whether or not will this format muscle out traditional lectures and classes after the pandemic, and who really has benefited from the forced flight into the digital space.

Magnezit Group, Russian leading manufacturer of refractory products, informed of planning to plant a million trees on the industrial waste discharges of one the company’s plants, in Satka (Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia). If the plan is actually implemented, it will become the most ambitious Russian project ever, aimed at restoration of the land damaged as a result of mining activities.

It was a year ago when the launch of a large-scale waste management reform was announced in Russia. This new system that is currently being built is aimed at increasing recycling rates and eliminating the waste dumps gradually. Many points of the reform take their beginning in German waste management principles. Partly because of it, the issue of recycling has become the hottest topic at the XII Russian-German Raw Materials Dialogue - an annual event organised by St. Petersburg Mining University.

The network of foreign partner universities of Russian scientific community is set to increase further. Last week, an agreement on scientific-technical cooperation between the International Competence Centre for Mining-Engineering Education under the auspices of UNESCO and the University of Leoben (Montanuniversität Leoben) was signed in Austria. The document was signed by Vladimir Litvinenko, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Competence Centre, and Wilfried Eichlseder, Rector of the Austrian University. The ceremony was also attended by Kurt Wallner, Mayor of Leoben, and Kirill Molodtsov, Aide to the Chief of Staff at the Presidential Executive Office of the Russian Federation.

London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) announced the Green Economy Mark to support companies’ transition to low-carbon sustainable business models.

The Russian delegation took part in the celebrations dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Institute of Energy Process Engineering and Chemical Engineering within the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology. As part of the celebration, the initiative was announced 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.

After visiting the Mining University, the Ambassador of Australia to the Russian Federation stated the need to expand academic cooperation between both countries.

Svetlana Radionova, the Head of Federal Supervisory Natural Resources Management Service (in Russian: Rosprirodnadzor), named the Korkinsky open-pit coal mine as one of the most heartbreaking examples of technological environmental impact in our country. How do the people actually live though, next to a non-stop fuming tunnel? Who and how will conduct the mine reclamation?

LUT University is now the key partner university in Finland for the International Competence Centre for Mining-Engineering Education under the auspices of UNESCO. Its main activities will be focused on improving technologies of waste recycling, including waste reuse and disposal of hazardous and toxic substances, as well as working on developing innovations resulting in reduced greenhouse gas emissions, with specific attention to be paid to power engineering facilities.