European Mining Course

Our final part of the journey takes us back on board.

The return cruise from Stockholm to Helsinki will bring us together for two meaningful moments of the FEMP tradition: the Tie Ceremony and the Hans de Ruiter Award.

📅 26.09.
🕒 Afternoon / Evening
📍 Stockholm to Helsinki

Make sure to register before 15 August to be part of the full Reunion journey.

We look forward to welcoming you all🎉

From 1,000 meters underground to some of the world’s largest mine ventilation systems.

As part of their Mine Ventilation course, the EMC cohort of 2025 recently took part in two technical visits in Germany.
At the Borth salt mine in Rheinberg, operated by the K+S Group, the students went around 1,000 meters underground and gained insight into a typical room-and-pillar mining operation.
They had the rare opportunity to visit areas close to the production faces and observe the auxiliary ventilation system in practice, including a 300 kW booster fan.

The cohort also visited the CFT GmbH - Compact Filter Technic headquarters in Marl, North Rhine-Westphalia, for a workshop focused on ventilation, dedusting, and air cooling in mining and tunneling.
During the tour of the production facilities, the students saw air-cooling systems used in tunnel boring machines, as well as large-scale main ventilation systems supplied to mining projects around the world.

A particular highlight was stepping inside the company’s large test chamber for mine fans, where axial ventilators with power outputs of more than 3 MW and impeller diameters exceeding 5 meters can be tested before delivery.
The visit also gave the students the opportunity to meet the managing director and owner of the company and hear valuable career advice.

Many thanks to K+S Group and CFT GmbH - Compact Filter Technic for welcoming the EMC students and sharing such valuable practical insights.

Text by Benjamin Mann and Michael Mayer.

Following the Main Reunion Event on 25 September, we will leave Helsinki in the evening and travel overnight by cruise to Stockholm, arriving on the morning of 26 September.
The day will offer time to experience Stockholm together, with one particularly distinctive highlight: a visit to the Epiroc Test Mine. 🤩

🥾 Remember to bring your safety boots for the mine visit.

📅 Registration closes on 15 August.
We look forward to welcoming you on board. 🛳️

From the first hello to the main gathering.

After opening the reunion together, we continue at Dipoli for the Main Reunion Event.

📍 Helsinki / Espoo

📅 25.09.

🕘 Morning / Afternoon

📌 Dipoli, Otakaari 24, 02150 Espoo

Your place in the story is waiting 🥂

The 30th FEMP Reunion begins its journey in Helsinki.

Our first stop is Rantasauna, Otaniemi, where we will gather for an evening welcome reception to open the reunion together.

📍 Helsinki
📅 24.09
🕔 17:00

The registration link has been sent by email and is also available on HumHub. If you haven’t registered yet, make sure to check it and join us for the 30th Reunion.

The EMC 2025 cohort joined the EIT Raw Material Summit in Brussels this week. Great opportunity for them to learn first hand about some of the challenges facing the industry and to network with some key industry figures.
Great to see them in action, asking great questions and putting themselves forward at this early stage of their careers in the industry.

The Future of Mining Podcast.

Episode 3 of the 2nd season is now available. Now available in video.

I had the great pleasure of interviewing Dr Sarah Weihmann and Dr Frank Charlier from RWTH Aachen university's Chair of Repository Safety during my trip to Aachen.

It was a great opportunity to catch up with them and hear more about this critical field. What research they are conducting and where they see the development of the field in the coming years.

It will also be interesting to hear how collaboration with industry is helping to drive research.

If you want to listen to watch the episode you can catch it here. https://youtu.be/b21SMpThcoc

Enjoy the episode and I look forward to reading your comments and feedback

John Vaassen
FEMP coordinator

The Future of Mining Podcast.

Episode 2 of the 2nd season is now available. Now available in video.

I had the great pleasure of interviewing Prof Tobias Vraetz from RWTH Aachen university department of Advanced Mineral Processing Technologies.

Tobias recently joined RWTH, so it is a great opportunity to catch up with him and see what he has planned. What research topics he is focused on and where he sees mining education developing in the coming years.

It will also be interesting to hear how collaboration with industry is helping to drive research and why Mining and Raw Material Processing is so important for the green transition and meeting the supply needs of future European industrial activity.

So it was a perfect opportunity to hear what their insights of the program so far and their thoughts on the future of mining in Europe.

If you want to listen to watch the episode you can catch it here. https://youtu.be/7eZXgiUtErc

Enjoy the episode and I look forward to reading your comments and feedback

John Vaassen
FEMP coordinator

The Future of Mining Podcast is back for another season.

I had the great pleasure of interviewing 5 students from the 2025 EMC cohort for the podcast, which is now a video podcast format.

The students had recently arrived in Aachen for their 2nd EMC semester at RWTH Aachen university.

So it was a perfect opportunity to hear what their insights of the program so far and their thoughts on the future of mining in Europe.

If you want to listen to watch the episode you can catch it here. https://lnkd.in/eGSWr6WM

Hi Alumni

Last year we started a new initiative “the Future of Mining” podcast series. The first six episodes were auto only and were really about learning how to create them, what we should include, and why it will be interesting for the audience.

The aim for the Podcast series is three fold.

Firstly, we want to build awareness of FEMP and the European Mining Course (EMC) and attract potential students to industry. So we need to make it relevant and interesting for potential students.

Secondly, we want to help change the perception of mining by sharing how our university and industrial partners are leading the industry forward, towards a dynamic, essential, high-tech and increasingly sustainable future.

Thirdly, we want to increase engagement and dialogue within the industry and our industry partners.

I greatly appreciate the support from the first few guests, Dr Ben Wilson and Professor Rodrigo Serna, who shared their insights and thoughts with us. It really helped form, the start of the series.

For 2026 I made the decision to convert this series into a Video podcast. Another learning experience.

Last week I drove down to RWTH Aachen university, where i had arranged to video three interviews. These will be turned into three up coming episodes, with two institutes and five EMC students who shared their experiences and insights. I will share a link once they are published.

If you are interested in getting involved and would like to share your insights into the current and future of the mining industry please dorop me a message.

You can access the first 6 podcast episodes via;

Apple podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/.../the-future.../id1816950539...

Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/episode/490GMZc4O7Kcf5tHKgg6n7...

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/playlist...

Any feedback or thoughts on how to spread the word would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards
John Vaassen
FEMP coordinator