At the end of October, a closing ceremony of the Russian-British Raw Materials Dialogue was held in St. Petersburg. During the course of the event, Ian Bowbrick, Director of Membership and Professional Standards at the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, awarded 12 experts of the Russian National Association of Mining Engineers with certificates granting them power to accredit mining specialists on behalf of the Institute one of the most prestigious professional bodies in the world.   

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. The particular importance of this problem is caused by ever increasing requirements to be met by professionals. In addition, mineral resources extraction is a process that has become more complex and sophisticated.

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.

Students of Lanzhou University of Technology came to the Mining University to participate in the International Summer School, named ”Modern Energy Technologies”.

On Tuesday, 26 March, it was reported that the PhosAgro Group would invest 23 billion rubles in the construction of the system for the phosphate-based fertilizers production at the Metachem plant in Volkhov.

The government of the state, which located between the Victoria Falls and the Limpopo River, is going to train highly qualified mining engineers in St. Petersburg and look for "new ways to develop the education".

PJSC LUKOIL has become the Gold Sponsor of the 6th Future Leaders Forum of the World Petroleum Council. The agreement establishing the terms of cooperation has been signed between the Company and the Russian National Committee of the World Petroleum Council.

The journal of the Mining University, which is celebrating this year its 112th anniversary, has been accepted for inclusion in the Scopus database. A request for inclusion in the database was accepted by the Content Selection & Advisory Board (CSAB). The indexing process for Scopus will start within the next three months.

Charles Hendry, a participant of the Russian-British Raw Materials Dialogue, held a lecture at the Mining University on the future of energy sector.