EDUCATION & RESEARCH Prof. Eng. Sorin Mihai Radu, PhD, Rector of the University of Petroșani:
“MINING NEEDS TO COME BACK!” The University of Petrosani has had a remarkable history as regards the training of specialists for the mining industry across five continents. This institution of higher education from Hunedoara County boasts an impressive portfolio of research projects in the mining industry and beyond. Prof. Eng. Sorin Mihai Radu, PhD, who was elected as Rector of the University of Petrosani in February 2016, has provided us with answers to key questions about the future of the mining industry and higher education in this field.
A
lthough mining is in decline in Romania, the University ... you are leading has trained, over the course of time, specialists who are now working on all the continents. What is the future of the higher education in the field of mining, in your view? Unfortunately, mining in Romania is undergoing a period of decline, but I hope that the future will compel us to re-invigorate this activity. The whole world economy is based on these resources. Romania still has very many resources, from energy resources to rare metals, so necessary for the industry, for electronics and hydro-electronics, among others. In Romania, besides the two energy complexes – the Oltenia Energy Complex and the Hunedoara Energy Complex, which has problems, being currently in a state of insolvency – mining is still carried out at Roșia Poieni, where we have a large copper quarry. We still have all the salt mines in our country, all the stone quarries for the Romanian infrastructure, roads, highways, and all of these need mining engineers. We also have a uranium exploitation and I believe that some gold mines or quarries will soon reopen. There are still unresolved environmental issues, as regards the processing of ore with cyanides, but current and future technologies will solve this problem too. Mining must return because our
142
specialists are highly appreciated, as you said, on all of the five continents and we are currently trying to create two specializations, one for mining engineers and one for specialists in the field of mining machines and equipment, with English as the language of instruction, so as to attract students from countries with a mining tradition. We had such students before, from the countries of Latin America, from North Africa - Maghreb, Central Africa and even South Africa, Viet Nam, China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan. We hope that these offers that we wish to present will bring us students, especially since some of our graduates from these countries occupy key positions in their countries of origin and know our University. I have met, at conferences, our graduates from African countries, for example, from Senegal. Also, over 100 of our graduates from the University of Petrosani have worked or are working in large quarries of copper from Chile, so there is this possibility. Moreover, I noticed that in Hungary they are beginning to reopen the coal mines, that Poland and Germany won’t give up coal mining and that even if there are problems of streamlining the coal mining activity in Romania, there are solutions, such as the gasification of coke, enabling us to keep exploiting these resources.
Apart from the educational programs you offer, the University has a history which, I would say, is remarkable also as regards research. What is the research infrastructure available to you and can present to us some research projects that you intend to develop or are underway? We have been approached, maybe not to the extent that we were up until 10 years ago, also because of the limitations imposed on the mining activity, to provide solutions to various exploitation projects, particularly in the salt and copper mines, as well as, to some extent, to other projects concerning the stabilization or even the closure of mines. Together with other colleagues, we conducted calibrations in France and in Germany, in particular, in the field of WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO