Wisely used, mineral resources create wealth, employment, a vital social and natural environment and peace. If the reverse of these conditions occurs only too often, illustrating the so-called “resource curse”, this should be attributed to the true perpetrators, namely irresponsible, weak or selfish leaders. This book, however, does not intend to provide rules for good governance. I wrote it as a broad overview on geoscientific aspects of mineral deposits, including their origin and geological characteristics, the principles of the search for ores and minerals, and the investigation of newly found deposits.

The young Mary Shelley prophesied that science would create a monster that would forever breach it from society. In the XX century, this Cassandra prophecy seems to have come true. A scientific approach to man, mankind and nature has led to a huge bloody attempt to reshape all by which this century will be memorable.

Во время прошлых землетрясений было выяснено, что колебания грунта на мягких участках почвы в целом больше, чем близлежащих горных пород, в зависимости от местных грунтовых условий (например, Сид (Seed) и Идрис (Idriss), 1968). Такие усиления реакции грунта симулировались с помощью нескольких компьютерных программ, в которых принимались упрощенные грунтовые условия, такие, как горизонтальные слои грунта бесконечной протяженности.

Slope monitoring radar has emerged in the last ten years as a leading edge tool for monitoring movements in open pit mines, thanks to the ability to rapidly measure wall movements with millimetric accuracy over wide areas in any weather conditions. IBIS-M is an innovative interferometric radar able to provide high spatial resolution, long working distances and fast acquisition time. The first IBIS-M unit deployed in Turkey was installed in 2011 at the large lignite open pit Çöllolar Mine operated by Park Teknik. The geotechnical staff has now 24/7 real time monitoring of the slope stability with a wide coverage on the pit walls with the capability to detect the onset of wall movements far before the occurrence of failure, thus increasing the safety standards and productivity of the mine. The IBIS-M monitoring experience at Çöllolar mine is presented in this paper. <...>