No. 1, 2008

The St. Petersburg Mining Institute is 235 years old and is forging ahead confidently

The fruitful activity of many outstanding Russian scientists is associated with the St. Petersburg Mining Institute, one of the country’s oldest establishments of higher education. In the 235 years of its existence the Institute has gone through a lot but managed to preserve its fine traditions. As President of Russia Vladimir Putin put it, the St. Petersburg Mining Institute “is not just one of Russia’s model higher education establishments: it is a leader in the sphere of education – both in Europe and the whole world…”

In accordance with the behests of Peter the Great

The St. Petersburg Mining Institute (named after Georgy Plekhanov and also known as technical university) was Russia’s first school of higher technical education. It was established by the order of Empress Catherine II on October 21, 1773 in realization of the ideas of Peter the Great and Mikhail Lomonosov on the need for training engineering personnel to promote the mining industry. In the early 20th century, an encyclopedic dictionary by Brockhaus and Efron told its readers: “The Mining Institute, a higher mining school in St. Petersburg, opened in 1774; in 1804, it was reorganized into a cadet corps of mining engineers, in 1833, into a mining institute, in 1848, into an institute of the corps of mining engineers (a residential military school), and in 1866, it became an open institution of higher learning with a five-year course of study. Between 1874 and 1905, it was under the authority of the Ministry of State Property, and later – the Ministry of Agriculture. Today, it is in the charge of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.” Throughout its history the Mining Institute went through wars, revolutions and social upheavals, but remained true to the motto proclaimed by Mikhail Soimonov, President of the Mining Collegium: “Deeds, not words!”

Even in the 1990s, amid the country’s arduous transition to a market economy, when many higher education establishments faced the problem of survival, the faculty of the Mining Institute set themselves the task of overcoming the difficulties and preparing the ground for further progress. Soon the Institute’s entire professorship were involved in designing and implementing a new development strategy based on effective utilization of the research potential accumulated over the centuries, strengthening ties with production facilities, promoting international cooperation and, most important of all, training specialists adapted to present-day conditions.

As the rector, Vladimir Litvinenko, put it, “in recent years, the activities of the faculty of the Mining Institute have shown convincingly that, despite the difficult situation, any establishment of higher education is capable of providing itself with everything needed to ensure a proper educational process and productive research, and realizing its intellectual potential for the benefit of efficient production development – in our case, in the production of mineral resources that are so important for Russia’s future prosperity.”

Responding to the challenge of the times

Today, the Mining Institute has a student body of over 8,500 and is training bachelors and masters of science as well as engineers in eight areas of knowledge. The Institute has six intramural departments (mining, mining electromechanical, economic, metallurgical, mineral resources development, fundamental research and humanities), a correspondence department and a military-training department. The Institute also has two branches: one in Vorkuta and the other in Kirishi.

Employed at the Institute’s 40 chairs and two branches are over 120 doctors of science and professors, more than 400 candidates of science and assistant professors, and over 30 members of Russian and international academies. Intensive research is being conducted at the Institute into the main problems involved in the development of the country’s mineral resources, environmental management, and the development of advanced energy-saving technologies of producing and processing mineral resources. The Institute’s museum has unique collections featuring over 200,000 exhibits from more than 80 countries of the world. The Institute’s main library with nearly 1.5 million volumes is of considerable scientific and historical importance. The Institute has the Federal status within the Russian educational system and is regarded as a particularly valuable object of the cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation; it has been awarded by the government four times.

Within the scope of the continual modernization process, the Institute is introducing innovative educational programs enabling formulation of new approaches to providing HR and scientific support for the transition of the mineral resources base from the strategy of exporting raw materials to an innovative resource strategy requiring new organizational forms and structures based on the integration of educational, research, innovation and production resources.

The high degree of science intensiveness of geological and mining operations and the steadily growing requirements to their effectiveness and productivity make it imperative to work out new scientific and methodological approaches to the training of engineers capable of implementing new models of exploring, identifying and creating alternative mineral resources bases and early forecasting and minerogenetic operations; optimizing the technologies of developing mineral deposits and improving the analytical methods of appraising mineral resources and predicting their processing properties; and introducing progressive processes of integrated extraction of useful components.

The Mining Institute closely follows and promptly responds to important events in the sphere of mineral development and holds international symposiums, conferences, seminars and round-table discussions attended by the captains of industries and CEOs of large Russian and foreign companies. Representatives of all continents take part in discussing the global problems of mining education and science.

A large number of important international gatherings took place at the Mining Institute in 2007, including: the Second international workshop on the innovative technologies of automation and production control of mining and processing operations; the Fifth international geophysical workshop on the application of modern electric exploration processes in prospecting for mineral fields; a conference on the subject of Russia and the Kyoto Protocol; and an international forum of young scientists on the problems of subsoil use.

Acquainting the public, especially young people, with problems and achievements in geology, mining, metallurgy, ecology and economics is an important part of the Institute’s activity. With that object in view, hundreds of excursions to the Institute’s museum, one of the world’s best, are organized every year for school and university students, and for specialists. Such excursions also take in the Institute’s unique laboratories and lecture-halls. Published regularly since 1907 have been “The Proceedings of the Mining Institute,” featuring articles by both inveterate researchers and young talented students.

Cooperation with LUKOIL

An important part in the development of the Mining Institute today is played by large Russian and foreign companies which not only render substantial material assistance to it, but also help its students find their place in life.

LUKOIL is primarily focused on taking care of the rising generation and training young specialists for Russia’s oil industry. Fruitful cooperation between the Company and the Mining Institute began in April 2003, when LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov and the rector of the Institute, Prof. Vladimir Litvinenko, signed an agreement on cooperation in training specialists, conducting research, improving the Institute’s material and technical infrastructure, and in other areas of mutual interest.

A year later already, such cooperation yielded appreciable results. During an official reception of a LUKOIL delegation headed by Vagit Alekperov, specialized lecture-halls provided by the Company were ceremonially opened at the Institute. In 2004, the Company allocated to the Institute the funds it needed to build a student hostel. Furthermore, a corporative grant, instituted by LUKOIL, was awarded to a number of lecturers and students.

Addressing the students of the Mining Institute in 2006, Vagit Alekperov said: “As competition among the transnational corporations grows tougher, scientific and technical achievements will play an increasingly important role in their efforts to retain leading positions on the world market. Such achievements will also be a major springboard for a leap forward by Russian companies which have considerable mineral reserves but lag far behind their Western competitors in terms of financial efficiency, operations geography, and R&D work.”

Throughout its 235-year history the St. Petersburg Mining Institute has been and remains the initiator of the key lines of business in the sphere of subsoil use: prospecting for, exploration, development and processing of mineral resources of any kind – solid, liquid and gaseous. Today, the Institute is a modern world-standard school of higher education, which trains top-notch mining professionals.