In 1948, the Mining Faculty (currently the Institute of Mining and Geosystems – IMGS) was opened at the Siberian Metallurgical Institute to train engineering personnel for the operating and under construction mining enterprises of Western Siberia and especially the south of Kuzbass. Its development is inextricably linked with the history of the Siberian Metallurgical Institute. The faculty was based on the departments of Mineral Deposit Development (RAMPI), Geology, and Mining Electromechanics. The first graduation of specialists from the Mining Faculty of the Siberian Metallurgical Institute took place in 1952.

The training of specialists in the field of 25.00.02 - Applied Geology (qualification of mining engineer-geologist) at SibGIU is carried out by the Department of Geology, Geodesy and Life Safety (until 2017, the Department of Geology and Geodesy) of the Institute of Mining and Geosystems (formerly the Mining Faculty). In 2018, the Institute and the Department celebrate 70 years since their creation. 

New requirements for the training of mining engineers (specialists) pose the task of developing effective means of organizing independent work of students for teachers of higher education. The use of such means is especially relevant for students of correspondence and part-time forms of education.

Gaps in sedimentary sequences are valuable evidence for the effective reconstruction of the dynamics of sedimentary basin development, including the use of sequence-stratigraphic methodology. Information about them can also be successfully used in discussing sea level fluctuations in the geological past of the planet (eustatic fluctuations). In this regard, it is of interest to generalize information about regional gaps to resolve the issue of the position of the World Ocean level in the Paleozoic relative to the Mesozoic.

One of the problems of modern coal mines in Russia and abroad is the high natural methane content of coal seams at a depth of more than 400 m, which leads to the release of methane in an amount of more than 20 m3 /t of mined coal. In-kind studies were conducted to assess the effect of methane content in coal seams on the rate of development workings in Kuzbass mines. Fig. 1 shows histograms of the distribution of actual and planned rates of advancement of development faces in seam 48 of the Yerunakovskaya VIII mine, Kuzbass. The stochastic nature of the distribution of the rates of advancement of development faces is clearly evident. Deviations of actual rates of development from planned rates on average for individual development faces reach 21%.

The development of the Tashtagol deposit reserves is carried out in the conditions of developing processes of earth surface and rock displacement. The delay in the construction of the main structures of the new industrial site to replace the existing ones led to the depletion of free reserves and the placement of the main ore reserves of the Eastern section in protective pillars under the existing industrial structures and the Kondoma River. Almost all structures of the operating industrial site and the Kondoma River fall within the zone of influence of mining operations on the earth's surface, and most of these structures are already in the zone of dangerous displacements (Fig. 1), which requires not only instrumental control, but also diagnostics of their deformation based on the identified patterns and features of rock displacement of the deposit. This is especially relevant for objects of the 1st category of protection: the Severny and Novo-Kapitalny shafts.

At present, problems of ensuring the safety of mining operations arise in coal mines with high speed of advancement of long working faces, which is associated with the intensification of gas emission in the workings. The gas abundance of workings is one of the main factors limiting the load on the working face and the speed of development workings. To reduce the negative impact of this factor, it is necessary to use modern methods of degassing.

In the south-east of the Altai Mountains, in the high-mountain Tarkhatinskaya basin, located between the Yuzhno-Chuisky and Sailyugem ridges, in addition to the large lake of the same name, there are at least 30 small moraine-dammed and thermokarst lakes ranging in size from a few tens of meters to 700 m. At present, some of them have been completely drained. The basins of drained moraine lakes are limited by clearly defined short steep grassy slopes. Their bottoms are flat, slightly concave, composed of coarse-grained and fine-grained, almost unrounded material, complicated by cryogenic microrelief (stone rings), and only in the center are there insignificant areas covered from above by a thin layer of partially preserved, highly waterlogged organomineral silt (sapropel) of a brownish or brown color.

According to the Federal Law “On Industrial Safety of Hazardous Production Facilities,” hazardous production facilities include those that involve open-pit and underground mining operations and enrichment work.

The relevance of research into methods for forecasting coal seam sections that are dangerous due to sudden outbursts of coal, rock and gas is due to the relatively high probability of incidents and accidents related to gas-dynamic manifestations of rock pressure. Based on the results of the analysis of the conclusions of the commissions investigating accidents in the mines in the Kuznetsk Basin, 271 gas-dynamic phenomena were registered.

Quarry transport, which releases carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen and sulfur oxides into the atmosphere, requires alternative solutions to the problem of gas contamination due to the increased depth of the cut, since the above-mentioned emissions accumulate due to poor ventilation of the open-pit mining system. Due to the above-mentioned problem, working conditions significantly deteriorate, and quarry operation is periodically stopped. In addition, climatic factors also affect quarry operation. Downtime of the open-pit mining system can reach 1000 hours or more annually, which entails significant losses.