DEPARTMENT OF Mineralogy, Petrology and Mineral Resources

Scientific interests of Department's staff are closely connected to mineral raw materials, mineralogy, petrology of magmatic, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, sedimentology, geochemistry and biogeochemistry, technical petrography, geoarchaeology, archaeometry and environmental protection. Scientific activities in the academic year 2017/2018 were performed in the frame of: (1) the Croatian science foundation's project entitled "Nanominerals in sediments and soils: formation, properties and their role in biogeochemical processes"; (2) four financial supports provided by the University of Zagreb: "Mineralogical and Surface Physico-Chemical Properties of Red Palesols from Istria and Susak island", "Geological Evolution of Volcanic, Volcanoclastic and Sedimentary Facies of the Dinarides in the Early/Middle Triassic"; „Mineralogical and Surface Physico-Chemical Properties of recent marine sediments and soil from island of Mljet“ and „Geological Evolution of Volcanic, Volcanoclastic and Sedimentary Facies and ofiolites of the Dinarides in the Early/Middle Triassic", as well as Croatian- Austrian bilateral project “ Clay mineralogy in landslide hazard assessment“. The Department's staff also participate in two scientific projects founded by Croatian Science Foundation which coordinators ara employed at other institutions: "Natural habitat of clinically important acinetobacter Baumannii" (Faculty of Science) and „Iron production along the Drava River in the Roman period and the Middle Ages: Creation and transfer of knowledge, technologies and goods“ (Institute of Archaeology). In the frame of mentioned projects, following topics are beeing investigating: the formation, properties and the role of nanominerals in biogeochemical processes in sediments and soils; Quarternary Aeolian deposits of the northern Adriatic area with the goal of modeling global climatic changes; reasons for the Permo-Triasic mass extinction; mineralogical properties of marls and flysch prone to sliding; soils favorable for bacteria supstrate; and provenance of iron ore used in Antiquity and Middle Ages. This activity resulted in the participation of the Department's staff at numerous domestic and international scientific meetings and in the publishing of papers in scientific magazines (14 articles cited by Scopus of which 8 by Web o Science). The Department's employees are active in the editorial boards of international and domestic scientific journals and closely cooperate with scientists from other institutions such as Faculty of Science, The Ruđer Bošković Institute, The Jožef Stefan Institute, Croatian Geological Survey, University for Natural Resources and Life Sciences from Vienna, Institute of Archaeology and other scientific institutions.

Some members of the Department also participate in two significant innovation projects funded by the European Institute of Technology and Innovation under the Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS): "Multifactor model for investment in the raw material sector, case study Bosnia and Herzegovina" and "Mineral potential of the ESEE region".

Apart from the regular teaching obligations, members of the Department also participates in the educational project such as: "Dubrovnik International ESEE Mining School", "NEw Approaches and Technologies in Materials Production – Consolidation Program" and "Training Trainers in the ESEE region "(funded by the European Institute of Technology and Innovation); and "EDUpolicy LAB - Service Learning to Equal Educational Opportunities" (funded by the European Social Fund). The members of the Department also actively participated in the Raw Materials University Day Zagreb.

An integral part of the Department are: LaGema - Laboratory for the Analysis of Geological Materials and Geoscientific Collection. The laboratory is used in teaching, scientific work and in collaboration with industry to analyze samples of soil, sediments, rocks, ore, water and other materials. The laboratory offers: mineralogical-petrographic analyzes of rocks, chemical, mineral and granulometric analyzes of different types of geological materials samples, chemical analysis of water, detailed analysis of clay minerals and micromorphological soil analysis. In the academic year 2017/2018, the Department's employees cooperated with the following institutions and organizations: Faculty of Agriculture and Faculty of Science from University of Zagreb, Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, Koprivnica Museum, Cemtra doo, CSS doo, Eko Pan - Environmental and Nature Protection Association and Borvanna doo. The Geoscience Collection contains valuable collections of minerals, rocks and ores. Iti is used mainly in teaching. In the last academic year the collection was illuminated and all the names and locations of the exhibits were revised. Four Bsc theses were written on the samples from the collection in the last academic year. It also opened its doors to groups of high school students from various parts of Croatia as part of the event "Raw materials University Day Zagreb".