OMC 2024

The Association of Mining and Geology Engineers of Serbia, the Yugoslav Opencast Mining Committee, the University of Belgrade - Faculty of Mining and Geology, the Association of Mining Engineers of Germany, and the Association of Mining Engineers and Geologists of Republika Srpska organized the 16^th International Mining Conference OMC 2024, which was held from October 9th to 12th, 2024, in Zlatibor at the Palisad Hotel.

The 16^th International Mining Conference OMC 2024 was attended by representatives of the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mining and Geology, Faculty of Electrical Engineering from Belgrade, Ministry of Environmental Protection of the Republic of Serbia, Faculty of Technical Sciences from Kosovska Mitrovica, Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia, Geological Survey of Serbia, University of Western Macedonia (Kozani) from Greece, University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy (Bulgaria), Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit Universitesi (Turkey), Recep Tayyip Erdogan University (Turkey), Mining Faculty Petrosani University (Romania), as well as representatives of the following companies: Joint Stock Company Elektroprivreda Srbije (Belgrade), Joint Stock Company Elektroprivreda Srbije MB Kolubara (Lazarevac), Joint Stock Company Elektroprivreda Srbije TPPs-OCMs Kostolac (Kostolac), PD Georad (Drmno), DPM Avala (Belgrade), Rio Sava (Belgrade), Tekon Sistemi (Belgrade), EFT Stanari Mine and Thermal Power Plant (Republika Srpska), Mining Institute (Belgrade), Opencast Mining Center (Belgrade), CCC Engineering (Belgrade), PE Underground Coal Mining (Resavica), Ugljevik Mine and Thermal Power Plant (Republika Srpska), Pljevlja Coal Mine (Montenegro), Banovići Brown Coal Mines (BiH), Jantar grupa (Pančevo), Mineral Group (Belgrade), Vedir Impex (Belgrade), Civil Engineering Institute of Macedonia (North Macedonia), AD Kaolin (Valjevo), Skala M (Belgrade), Flipping FRP (Belgrade), AP Sidro (Belgrade), TEI KOM (Belgrade).

The Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Conference, Prof. Pavlovic, greeted the participants, wished them a successful conference, and officially opened the conference.

The first presentation in the plenary part of the conference, titled Contemporary trends of mineral resources management in the world and the situation in Serbia was held by Prof. Dragan Ignjatovic.

The next presentation, entitled Issues on widening the sources of extraction of critical minerals, was given in the plenary session by Konstantinos Laskaradis, PhD from Greece.

The presentation, also in the plenary session, entitled Issues on widening the sources of extraction of critical minerals, was held by Prof. Eugen Traista from Romania. After him, the presentation entitled Post mining activities in Turkey: a case study for coal mines was held by Asst. Prof. Mehmet Bilen from Turkey.

In the plenary part of the conference, Emil Atanasovski, a representative of the Rio Sava Exploration company (gold sponsor of the conference), introduced the attendees to the Jadar project.

In the first part of the plenary session of the conference, presentations were also given by representatives of 15 Czech companies that are members of the Czech Extraction and Mining Technology Association (CDT). Mr. Pavel Danek, a representative of the Czech Republic's Embassy, also attended the conference. The Embassy of the Czech Republic and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic were also the golden sponsors of this 16^th International Mining Conference.

After the presentations of the Czech companies’ representatives, the plenary session of the conference continued after a short coffee break. The second part of the plenary session was chaired by Prof. Dragan Ignjatovic. In this part of the plenary session of the conference, the first presentation entitled UNFC - a tool for resource classification was held by Jasmina Djogic from the Geological Survey of Serbia. The second presentation entitled Mechanical and microstructure analyses of cemented paste backfill prepared with mixing waters of different pH values in this part of the plenary session was held by Tugba Keskin from Turkey. The next presentation entitled Digitalization in mining: creating a system for efficient business reporting was given by Asst. Prof. Stevan Djenadic from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mining and Geology. The plenary session ended with two more presentations, namely Mechanical characteristics of cement-based backfilling reinforced with sand, using destructive and non-destructive techniques (Tugrul Kasap) and The influence of agricultural waste on the performance of cement-based mine backfilling (Muhammet Sari). Both speakers are from Turkey.

After the afternoon break, a roundtable entitled Ecologically Sustainable Mining was held, chaired by Prof. Vladimir Pavlovic. A large number of conference participants participated in the work of the roundtable.

After the introductory speech by Prof. Vladimir Pavlovic and an exhaustive discussion by a large number of participants, it was concluded that the mining sector has great potential that has not been used for energy security and safety and the overall socio-economic development of the Republic of Serbia due to the increasingly frequently raised question (by individuals and interest groups) of sustainability of mining in the context of the negative impact of the mining sector on the environment and the social community. This trend in the domestic environment has been taken over from countries where interests have been expressed in recent decades, and in that context, lobbying by certain stakeholders to baselessly declare that economic development of humanity based on the continuous increase of mining primary mineral resources is unsustainable, although all forecasts from relevant world institutions indicate that between now and 2060, the consumption of mineral resources will at least double.

Ecologically sustainable mining is possible if economic prosperity, public health and a healthy environment are in balance. In order to build a system of environmentally sustainable mining, significant changes are necessary in business strategies, operational technologies, personal behavior and public policies in the mining sector, which will enable a rational balancing of the needs for mineral resources in relation to the need to protect the environment and society from unnecessary harmful impacts of mining activities.

Finally, conclusions were drawn stating that in order to build a system of environmentally and sustainable mining, it is necessary to:

• 1. In the context of socio-economic development, equalize the position of the mining sector in relation to other industrial sectors and, in this regard, while respecting the environmental component of sustainable development, give the greatest importance to mineral resources and the mining sector for the future socio-economic development of the Republic of Serbia;
• 2. The development of a new Mineral Resources Management Strategy of the Republic of Serbia is underway, which will be aligned with EU directives and standards and will be a guideline for an environmentally sustainable future;
• 3. Innovate the legal regulations in the field of geological exploration and the mining sector or in areas that have an impact on the mining sector in accordance with good international practice, especially the regulations regarding the Impact Assessment Study, which, in addition to the impact assessment, must also have a comprehensive risk assessment, as this practice is increasingly present in the EU and the world;
• 4. Increasing human resources capacity and competence at the level of the entire mining sector through mandatory education, as follows:
  • - Modernization and adaptation of study programs of higher education institutions in accordance with modern scientific and technological achievements,
  • - Education programs organized by guild associations,
  • - Education programs of other institutions and the population in the field of the mining sector.
  • - Participation in domestic and foreign guild conferences, symposia and seminars.
• 5. It is necessary to promote awareness that mineral resources are essential for global development, especially among younger generations, but also through education of the entire population;
• 6. Within the framework of the Association of Mining and Geology Engineers of Serbia, as the umbrella guild association, it is necessary to organize work on building a responsible mining system based on world practice, the Canadian Mining Association's Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) standard, as a globally recognized sustainability program that supports mining companies in managing key environmental and social risks.

During the second day of the 16^th International Mining Conference OMC 2024, the work continued, namely with oral paper presentations of the conference participants. In the afternoon, the conference was officially closed.

As part of the conference, 43 scientific and professional papers were published in the Proceedings.

We would like to thank all participants in the work of the 16^th International Mining Conference OMC 2024, as well as the sponsors, without whom it would have been difficult to successfully organize the conference with such a large number of participants.

The gold sponsors of the conference were DPM Avala from Belgrade, Rio Sava Exploration from Belgrade, the Embassy of the Czech Republic, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.

The silver sponsors were Vedir Impex from Belgrade and the Civil Engineering Institute of Macedonia—Belgrade Representative Office.