Multi-criteria decision-making methods are widely used to solve various problems in the industry, as well as to support the planning and designing industrial processes. Mining is a very complex and responsible activity, so when making a major decision, it is necessary to take into account several parameters and perform their detailed analysis. Due to the importance of proper decision making, multi-criteria optimization methods have a very wide application in mining. One of the most complex and important things in mining is the choice of mining method for underground exploitation, where the application of multi-criteria decision-making methods can help a lot in making the right decision. This paper will present the choice of the method of mining excavation by the TOPSIS method, according to which it was obtained that the Sublevel Caving is optimal for a given case.<...>

Fossils are among the most highly prized natural objects in the world. They figure in our everyday lives as decorative objects in our homes, and as the dinosaur products which fill the toy and book shops and which periodically appear in the cereal packets at our breakfast tables. Collecting fossils is an absorbing pastime which grades into a passion for weekend geologists, and many students enter higher education through their interest, reading for degrees in the earth sciences which have a direct benefit for the national economy. <...>

Mineral deposits have supplied useful or valuable material for human consumption long before they became objects of scientific curiosity or commercial exploitation. In fact, the earliest human interest in rocks was probably because of the easily accessible, useful (e.g., red pigment in the form of earthy hematite) or valuable (e.g., native gold and gemstones) materials they contained at places. In modern times, the study of mineral deposits has evolved into an applied science employing detailed field observations, sophisticated laboratory techniques for additional information, and computer modeling to build complex hypotheses. Understanding concepts that would someday help geologists to find new mineral deposits or exploit the known ones more efficiently have always been, and will continue to be, at the core of any course on mineral deposits, but it is a fascinating subject in its own right, even for students who do not intend to be professional economic geologists. I believe that a course on mineral deposits should be designed as a "capstone course" that illustrates a comprehensive application of concepts from many other disciplines in geology (mineralogy, stratigraphy and sedimentation, structure and tectonics, petrology, geochemistry, paleontology, geomorphology, etc.).

First paleomagnetic and isotope-geochronological data on four basaltic volcanic pipes of the North-Minusinsk depression are reported. It is shown that the volcanic pipes appeared between 82 and 77 Ma ago. All ChRM directions of the pipe basanites are of reverse polarity. This fact is in agreement with the 40Ar-?9Ar ages of the rocks (within the accuracy of the 40Ar-39Ar method). The revealed ChRM corresponds to the end of chron 33R of reverse polarity (according to the geomagnetic-polarity time scale). The paleomagnetic poles of the studied pipes differ from the APWP of Eurasia.

In the North-Minusinsk intermontane depression, volcanic