TU Bergakademie Freiberg – The University of Resources. Since 1765.

As Germany's leading resource university the TU Bergakademie takes an extensive look at the secure provision of resources at all stages of the value-added chain. In doing so, it covers the complete raw material life cycle from the exploration of natural deposits and their environmentally-sound extraction via the development of alternative energy technologies and efficient materials up to recycling. In all these processes, the idea of a sustainable development is guiding and central. In this way the TU Bergakademie Freiberg helps to provide the basics of an environmentally- sound supply of resources for society that are indispensable for economic growth everywhere in the world.

The focus on a sustainable material and energy economy in research and education plus the four core fields GEO, MATERIAL, ENERGY and ENVIRONMENT give the Bergakademie - founded in 1765 and thus the oldest academic mining school worldwide – its very distinct ‚resource profile'. Intensive cooperation with industry - both in Saxony and abroad – guarantees that research in Freiberg is close to the market. In third-party research funding per professor the TU Bergakademie takes the lead in the eastern federal states and ranks among the top ten in Germany as a whole.

Due to its distinct profile, the best possible conditions for education and the practice-oriented study programmes the Bergakademie is attractive for young Germans as well as for international students. Currently, some ten per cent of the 5.700 students come from abroad. The excellent conditions for studying are regularly confirmed in rankings: the TU Bergakademie is the ideal place for those who are determined to meet their goal. By its first-class research the TU Bergakademie Freiberg can guarantee its students top-level education in all natural sciences, engineering and economics programmes offered.

The specific ‚resource profile' also shows in the unique range of courses and programmes available in Freiberg: the total of 21 Bachelor, 32 Master and 6 Diplom programmes includes among others Geoengineering and Mining, Process Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Materials Technology up to Mathematics and Economics. In order to promote the central idea of a sustainable development as a core element in international education, too, the TU Bergakademie Freiberg invited universities worldwide to join the World Forum of Universities of Resources on Sustainability founded in Freiberg in 2012.

This illustrates that today the TU Bergakademie Freiberg again rises to the current challenges of society - just as it did some 250 years ago. It was at the Bergakademie in Freiberg where scholars such as Ferdinand Reich und Theodor Richter discovered the new element Indium and where Clemens Winkler found the element Germanium in Freiberg ore. In the "silver town" of Freiberg Abraham Werner established the scientific fundamentals for mineralogy and geology. And it was in Freiberg, too, where Wilhelm Lampadius installed the first gas lamp on the European Continent.

In present days, applied resource research in Freiberg can be exemplified by numerous projects. So, material scientists look into new production technologies to combine steel and ceramics into a material of better performance and higher energy efficiency. At the German Centre for Energy Resources (DER) researchers develop upcoming and future concepts for the non-energetic and energetic use of fossil and renewable energy resources for the post-oil era. At the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, founded by TU Bergakademie Freiberg in collaboration with the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, researchers aim to develop new sources of high-tech metals such as Gallium or Indium.

Indispensable for research and a unique attraction for visitors – this is in brief the importance of the some 40 scientific collections of TU Bergakademie Freiberg. To add to the renowned Mineralogical Collection already in place, in 2004 the university was donated one of the finest and most important mineralogical collections owned privately. Now the most breath-taking samples from all over the world can be marvelled at in the permanent exhibition "terra mineralia" in the renovated castle Schloss Freudenstein. Nearby, after restoration of the ‚Krügerhaus' the ‚Mineralogical Collection Germany' was opened in October 2012. In this way, the TU Bergakademie Freiberg has managed to establish an ensemble of mineralogical museums that is unequalled in Europe.

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