Germany is not only a country with an important geoscientific tradition, but also an area with centuries of mining or raw material exploitation. The evaluation and the management of the mining of raw materials and its consequences require at present and also in the future a permanent, scientifically high-level and interdisciplinary occupation with the mining areas.

In the German Geological Society, such practical mining science objectives are dealt with within the “Working Group on Geoscientific Aspects in Mining Areas”. Since its foundation in 1995, the working group aims to bring together geoscientists from the raw materials industry with representatives from geology-related administrative, economic and university research areas for an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas in mining regions.

Since then, two annual conferences have been organized, each consisting of a lecture session and a topic-related excursion. The thematic contents range from economic geological issues to the management of mining-related contaminated sites and the presentation of practical solutions for environmental geological or nature conservation problems. So far, the working group has been active in the fields of potash/salt, ore, lignite/hard coal and stone/earth mining, up to the problem of final disposal of radioactive waste.

The lectures and excursion guides of the conferences are published in the series “EDGG Excursion Guides and Publications” of the DGGV e.V. These proceedings can be purchased from the publisher, the DGGV office, or directly from the Working Group on Mining Consequences.

For more information, please visit the website of the Working Group on Mining Consequences.