Golden Hephaestus is pushing back the boundaries

June 2018 is marked by a number of events with a global significance for the mining and metallurgical industry due the 25th Jubilee World Mining Congress (WMC) which will take place in the city of Astana from June 19th through June 22nd.

On top of the intensive business program of the Congress and other co-occurring associated thematic events, it is scheduled to announce the winners of the major professional contest among the employees and companies of the mining and metallurgical sector – the Golden Hephaestus, and the formal awarding ceremony of 2018 will be held for the 9th time.

This year, the organizing committee of the contest has made a decision to extend the row of the nominations up to 13 categories. Such change has been caused by the fact that annually over 150 nominees take part in the competition, and 2017 had an unprecedented count of 190 entries.

As a result of the extended list of the nominations, the contest is rising to a new level of the maturity. Thus, one of the most recent categories – “The Best Foreign Partner” – is helping the organizers to expand the geography of the potential participants by bringing in abroad companies and organizations.

Kazakhstan is standing on the verge of the new era of the adoption of emerging technologies, innovations and digitization in the mining and metallurgical sector, and it is beyond any doubt that the Golden Hephaestus Award does not stay on the sidelines. For this very reason, the previous nomination “The Best Energy-Saving Solution” has been replaced with “The Best Digital Solution in the Mining and Metallurgical Sector” established by Eurasian Resources Group (ERG).

The winners in 13 nominations will be selected by the creditable panel of judges consisting of esteemed specialists of the industry and representatives of the governmental agencies.

Employees and companies of the mining and metallurgical sector are approved to take part in the contest along with the specialists of design institutions, educational centers and other related enterprises having pretensions to be the best in the mining art and metallurgy complex of Kazakhstan.

Every year, the Golden Hephaestus is strongly supported by the Ministry for Investments and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan and is justly considered to be the most prestigious award among the mining and metallurgical community of Kazakhstan. The organizer of this prominent event is Iteca LLP, the leading Kazakhstan-based exhibition company, while the Title Partner of the competition is ERG.

The contest aims to recognize achievements and progress of the companies and individual employees of the mining and metallurgical sector and also to big up the status and the competitiveness level of the industry specialists and inspire them to the further continuous improvement of their professional skills.
The call for the applications is currently underway and will be closed on May 25th, 2018.
The formal winner awarding ceremony of the Golden Hephaestus will take place on June 20th, 2018, in the city of Astana, under the auspices of the 25th Jubilee World Mining Congress.

*About the WMC:
The World Mining Congress is one of the largest and most significant industry events celebrated at the global level. Kazakhstan will be the first state of the CIS member countries to host this worldwide professional gathering. The Congress brings together gurus of the business circles and outstanding researchers and scholars from 50 countries of the globe that work in the development of the solid mineral deposits, science and technology, environmental protection and occupational safety. As of now, 46 countries, 56 industry specific associations and 41 universities, representing, inter alia, Australia, Canada, Austria, Poland, Norway and France, along with numerous leading experts of the global scientific and business community, investors and financial institutions, and top governmental officials have already confirmed their participation in the Congress.