The sun-baked land of Africa is painted bright red. It owes this colour to the high content of iron oxide in the soil. In this story, a graduate of St. Petersburg Mining University from the Congo (pictured to the right) provides an insight into the way mining industry works in his homeland. He also explains in what fundamental way he differs from local specialists.

Every year the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining IOM3 (Great Britain) holds a worldwide competition for young specialists in their specialization. In Russia, it partners with the International Competence Centre for Mining Engineering Education under the auspices of UNESCO.

The Mining Museum's archives were found to store records on which is based the world's first-ever technique of silicate replica smelting.

A young researcher from Moldova came to Russia to study oil & gas engineering. During the years his studies have been lasting, labour migration from his home country to the Russian Federation has nearly stopped. Yet Pavel Tsyglianu, a PhD student at St. Petersburg Mining University, believes career prospects in the state he moved to are much better than in his homeland.

Russia is aiming to develop hydrogen energetics. Rosatom, a Russian organisation that specialises in nuclear energy, proposed an initiative to establish a new export-oriented industry by 2024. This move was also supported by the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation.

It was 16 years ago when the International Forum-Contest of Young Researchers "Topical Issues of Rational Use of Natural Resources" was held by St. Petersburg Mining University for the first time. This year, due to the coronavirus outbreak the forum moved online, which, however, positively impacted both the number of contestants - up to a record-breaking 800 people - and the number of viewers - up to 2000 people, one and a half times above the last year's figure. The event traditionally taking place at the venue of the Mining University could have been followed on YouTube and ZOOM.

This is already the sixth foreign scientific and educational subdivision of the Center. Its tasks will include coordination at the national level of cooperation between Russian and Chinese higher education institutions, increasing academic mobility, expanding the range of joint research, and a number of others.

The Celestial Empire promptly coped with the second wave of the epidemic and is returning to its previous way of life. How much has it changed? Has unemployment risen? And has the pandemic affected the level of cooperation between scientists from Russia and China? These and other questions Forpost.ru addressed to Xiaowei Feng, a researcher at the State Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining of the University of Mining and Technology, located in Xuzhou City.

Azerbaijan was the first country in the world to have drilled an oil well and built an oil pipeline - both with the help of Russian experts. A petro boom followed as a result, but both then and now primary oil producers in the country are not domestic companies but foreign-based entities.

The Mining University's journal, which has turned 113 years old this year, is now recognised internationally.