The 53rd International October Conference on Mining and Metallurgy is organized by the Mining and Metallurgy Institute Bor. The Conference is organized annually, aims at providing a forum for presentation and discussion of scientific research, technological development and practice on the subjects focused on geology, underground mining, surface mining, mineral processing, extractive metallurgy, metal processing, materials science, inorganic technology and chemistry, environmental protection, energy efficiency and related engineering topics. The conference managed to maintain its mass and quality this year as well. 144 participants from 10 countries were present at the conference, 30 of which were from abroad, from over 20 institutions, both scientific and research organizations, educational institutions – faculties and institutes, as well as from state and private companies. Members of the NETMIN team Prof. Dr Cornelia Muntean, Dr Daniel Krzanovic, Dr Ana Kostov and Eng Dorina Vitelar took part in the conference. The poster presentation was on October 3 at hotel Albo and October 4 at the institute. As part of the conference, a meeting was held between Bor and Romanian participants on October 4.
On March 22nd, 2021, the World Water Day, the Faculty of Industrial Chemistry and Environmental Engineering (Politehnica University of Timisoara) organized the first edition of the symposium entitled Water – The Essence of Life (AquaSensTim), aimed at raising awareness of students, pupils, professors, researchers, and professionals in water management regarding this precious, life-sustaining resource. Due to the COVID-19 related measures, this edition of the symposium was held online. Nevertheless, the interest of participants was high, especially on finding the multitude of elements that influence water quality and environment health. In the section dedicated to “Science and technology for water preservation” assoc. prof. Cornelia Muntean presented aspects related to the topic of the symposium found during managing the project RORS-308 “Forming of network for enhancing environmental protection from pollutants of mining cross border areas”.
Scientific Romanian-Serbian Cross-border cooperation leads to important results in the environmental preservation and remediation. The final gala of the project RORS-337 “ROmania Serbia NETwork for assessing and disseminating the impact of copper mining activities on water quality in the cross-border area” organized in Timisoara (Romania) on September 3rd, 2021, was a good opportunity for presenting the findings within another significant project, also financed through the same Interreg-IPA line, namely “Forming of network for enhancing environmental protection from pollutants of mining cross border areas”. Assoc. prof. Cornelia Muntean, project manager for the project RORS-308 “Forming of network for enhancing environmental protection from pollutants of mining cross border areas” (NETMIN) explained the importance of phytoremediation of soils in copper mining areas, with a benefic influence on the quality of the environment, including the management of water resources. Participants in the gala could understand the need for creating a synergy between the projects, leading to science-based solutions for enhancing the efforts towards a better environment protecting measures.
The Joint Steering Committee of the network created within the framework of the project NETMIN-RORS-308 „Forming of network for enhancing environmental protection from pollutants of mining cross border areas” reunited on November 5th, 2021, in Bor (Serbia) to discuss the sustainability of the project results in the first year after the end of project implementation. Partners agreed upon the strategy of recruiting new members, to keep the network growing and upon common grounds on disseminating the project results both in the scientific community, and to relevant stakeholders in the mining areas, to raise awareness regarding the possibility to use phytoremediation in combating the negative effects of mining upon soil.
