Founded in 1929.
Its basic lines of activities are:
- protection of undermined buildings and structures; forecasts and prevention of rock bursts and gas-dynamic phenomena; studying stress-deformed state of rock massifs and providing the stability of underground mine workings; research into and forecasts of earth surface displacements; prospecting for mineral deposits; forecasting mining and geological conditions of coal deposit exhaustion; monitoring of the geological environment and geoecological studies; development of new chemical compounds for rock consolidation and packing mine workings; mine surveying studies; development of information technologies.
Major research achievements:
- Coal industry problems have been solved with surface geophysical methods, in paricular, techniques to identify zones promising for accompanying methane production.
- A procedure has been worked out to identify areas promising for oil and gas within the basement of the Northern flange of the Dnieper-Donets Depression.
- Specialized geophysical equipment has been developed and produced: a high-frequency underground explosion-proof seismic recording system (СШ 2К); an underground modular explosion-proof 12-channel seismic data acquisition system; an automatic system for continuous monitoring of gas-pipeline conditions (ASKG-1); a magnetotelluric station (AMTZ) to search for gold and oil deposits; ‘GeoMARK’ geoinformation system for geologic mine-surveying in coal fields of Ukraine; a series of high-efficiency consolidating composites for various geological and mining conditions.
- Recommendations for undermining of over 250,000 buildings and structures have been worked out and applied in practice, which ensured production of more than 500 million tons of coal under operating objects.
- Monitoring has been made of existing buildings at allotments of 32 abandoned mines in Donetsk, Kirovohrad, Luhansk and Lviv oblasts.
- Projects have been developed for flooding mine workings of 40 abandoned mines.
- A technology for partial mining of coal in safety coal pillars has been worked out and implemented.
- Guidelines for mining industry have been developed: “Mine surveying in coal mines and open pits. Instructions”, “Geologic work at coal-mining enterprises of Ukraine. Instructions”, “Regulations for the liquidation of disused coal-mine shafts”, “A process for consolidating rocks, coal and soils, based on the use of synthetic materials. Methodological instructions”, “Location, protection and treatment of mine workings when mining coal seams”, “Provisional technical specifications to protect structures and natural objects against underground mine impacts”, “Liquidation of coal mines. Protection of ground surface against flooding hazards in mine workings. Recommendations”.
