Field Trips

Pre-Con­gress Field Trips

UNESCO World Heritage Site Spiš Castle

We will dis­cov­er mod­ern indus­tri­al oper­a­tions at the mag­ne­site plant in Jelša­va, one of the world’s lead­ing pro­duc­ers of mag­ne­site refrac­to­ry mate­ri­als, the Ochtin­ská Arag­o­nite Cave as a glob­al­ly unique UNESCO World Her­itage site and the icon­ic Goth­ic Route of the “Iron Heart of Hun­gary”.

Dur­ing 2 days, we will explore the region.

image: SMZ a.s. Jelša­va

Mid-Con­gress Field Trip 1

Central and Eastern Slovak Mine Sites

In Smol­ník, par­tic­i­pants will vis­it one of the most impor­tant his­tor­i­cal min­ing sites in Cen­tral Europe. It was here that the cemen­ta­tion process for cop­per recov­ery was first described in the 15th cen­tu­ry and lat­er applied on an indus­tri­al scale, influ­enc­ing min­ing and met­al­lur­gi­cal prac­tices across Europe and becom­ing one of the ear­li­est record­ed exam­ples of hydromet­al­lur­gi­cal pro­cess­ing.

In Nižná Slaná, we can observe the con­nec­tion between min­ing his­to­ry and present-day envi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges. Fol­low­ing the clo­sure of the last oper­at­ing iron ore mine in Slo­va­kia, mine water has recent­ly re-emerged in the area, cre­at­ing a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to observe the process­es and chal­lenges asso­ci­at­ed with mine clo­sure and post-min­ing water man­age­ment.

Mid-Con­gress Field Trip 2

Dubník Opal Mine and Tokaj Region

Vis­i­tors will explore the world’s old­est opal mines in Dub­ník, whose his­to­ry dates back to pre-Roman times and whose pre­cious opals fas­ci­nat­ed mon­archs, sci­en­tists, and col­lec­tors for cen­turies.

Then we will expe­ri­ence the renowned Tokaj wine region, famous for its cen­turies-old wine­mak­ing tra­di­tion. This par­tic­u­lar wine is spe­cial because of the excep­tion­al method of fer­til­iza­tion and plant pro­tec­tion approach­es, where min­ing waste is a core for this prod­uct.

Mid-Con­gress Field Trip 3

Karst Region of Eastern Slovakia

The field trip will take you to the karst region of east­ern Slo­va­kia and to Slo­vak UNESCO World Her­itage Sites.

Post Con­gress Field Trip – Zuzana Bár­tová | tba Euros

Central and Eastern Slovak Mine and UNESCO Sites

We will explore the Cen­tral Slo­va­kian Vol­canic Field region with a spe­cial high­light of the Sala­man­der Days cel­e­bra­tion in Ban­ská Šti­avni­ca (🇦🇹 Schemitz) – bring your Min­ing uni­form! It is one of Europe’s most icon­ic min­ing fes­ti­vals, where his­toric min­ing tra­di­tions come alive in a vibrant parade through the streets of this UNESCO World Her­itage town.

Known as one of Europe’s most impor­tant min­ing cen­tres, Ban­ská Šti­avni­ca became a cra­dle of min­ing inno­va­tion. Here, Samuel Mikovíni designed pio­neer­ing water-man­age­ment sys­tems, while the Hell fam­i­ly devel­oped rev­o­lu­tion­ary machin­ery that enabled the dewa­ter­ing of deep­er mines and trans­formed min­ing oper­a­tions through­out Europe. It is there, where the world’s first met­al pump was found.

Dur­ing 3 days, we will explore much more of the region.