Geological Engineering and Exploration of Mines Department :

The department of Geological Engineering and Exploration of Mines was established in 1968 in the first days of inauguration of Kabul Polytechnic University entitled “department of Geology, Prospecting and Exploration of Solid Useful Materials” and since then has been continuing to its activity as a mother department and graduating institution of geology and mines engineers.

 After one year of the establishment of the department, new department named “Department of Exploitation of Mines” and after two years another department entitled “Department of Geology, Prospecting, Exploration and Exploitation of Oil and Gas” were separated from this department, and are actively continuing to their scientific and academic activities as graduating departments for mining and oil and gas engineering.

 In 2013 given the importance of geo engineering and hydrogeology in different construction and industrial affairs, another department entitled “Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology” has been separated as independent and graduating department from the mentioned department, that it is hoped to offer the first term of Geo Engineering and Hydrogeology engineers to the society in 2018.

The department of Geological Engineering and Exploration of Mines during its academic life has graduated about (2000) engineers of geology to the Afghan society for serving of people and country in bachelor, master and doctorate degrees.

 The engineers of geology who have graduated are actively working in the fields of geological mapping, prospecting and exploration, hydrogeology and engineering geology, and as skillful specialists have taken part in different projects for preparation of geological maps of different fields of the country, prospecting and exploration of different mineral deposits e.g copper, gold, silver, poly metal, precious stones and so on, they have been able to determine the quality and quantity of ground water and have done many research for building of civil and industrial construction, dam and stream, roads, installation of power pylons and further construction affairs.

 In 2014 the name of the department was changed to department of “Geological Engineering and Exploration of Mines” according to the recommendation of department meeting, confirmation of faculty and university scientific councils and approving of competent authorities of ministry of higher education,

 During the activity years of the department, textbooks, learning aids, lab manuals, and lecture notes of different subjects have compiled and provided by national and foreign professors and has been published for the students.

Currently ten textbooks of different subjects such as general geology, economic geology, geochemistry, prospecting and exploration of mines, engineering geology and hydrogeology, geology of Afghanistan in two volumes ( Geology - vol one and mineral deposits - vol two), structural geology, fundamentals of petrography, fundamentals of gemology, magmatism and metallogeny of Afghanistan and so on have been compiled and translated in Pashto and Dari languages, which play valuable role in betterment process of teaching and improving of level of knowledge of students.

The following lecturers are the faculties of the department who are actively teaching related subjects on the basis of their specialization.

It is necessary to remind in appreciation from the valuable services of all local and foreign lecturers and professors who have taken part in teaching process and evolution of department and may God bless the souls of those who have passed away and wish a long life and more success for those who are alive.

Learning objectives of Geological Engineering and Exploration of Mines department

      The specialists, who are being trained at the department of Geological Engineering and Exploration of Mines, will be able to briefly meet the following objectives:

1. Prospecting and exploration of mineral deposits.
2. Preparation of geological maps in different scales.
3. Geological investigation of various geological processes.
4. Geohazards assessment and preliminary measure for their prevention.
5. Conducting of geo engineering and hydrogeology investigations at different ministries of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
6. Successful conducting of lab works at Afghan Geological Survey of ministry of mines and petroleum.
7. Determination of different industrial types of deposits.
8. Estimation of resources in different categories using different methods.
9. Find out the effective and suitable variant of resources estimation.
10.  Suggesting of methods for exploitation of mines and sufficient consultations in this regarding.

Vision

The department of Geological Engineering and Exploration is counted as a unit of higher education for knowledge of students and professional engineers. This department plays a valuable role for training of young professional cadres which meets the requirements of our community and beloved country Afghanistan to enhance the social welfare and national economy potency of country, the young cadres of this department is trained by expert lectures. Professional engineers of geology and exploration of mines leads country towards developments on the basis of society needs.

Mission

The department of Geological Engineering and Exploration of Mines like other departments plays an effective role for training of cadres of professional engineers in the field of geology (Geologist Engineer) to enhance the level of knowledge of students and their involvement in prospecting and exploration of mineral deposits, making of different geological maps, determination of benefits and being economic of various mineral deposits  in order to leads the society towards improvement and social welfare to meet the country requirements.

Goal

The goal of this department is to train the professional engineers in productive affairs on the basis of society needs. In order to reach in standard criteria of an updated curriculum, it is necessary to be provided necessary facilities which meet the international requirements for qualitative higher education that different specialized departments can offer the professional engineers on the basis of country needs to society. 

The curriculum of Geological Engineering and Exploration of Mines Department

First Year, First Semester

Code	Subject	Credit Points
CO 101	Islamic Culture	1
CO 103	History	1
EL 102	Foreign Language – English	3
EL 113	Higher Mathematics in Geosciences	4
CH 114	General Chemistry	4
CO 123	Plane Geometry and Technical Drawing	2
EL 116	Physics	2
CS 119	Basics of Computer	2
GE 104	Sports	1
Total		20

                                                          

Second Year, Second Semester

Code	Subject	Credit Points
CO 201	Islamic Culture	1
EL 202	Foreign Language – English	3
EL 213	Higher Mathematics in Geosciences	3
CH 214	General Chemistry	3
CH 251	Analytical Chemistry	2
CO 223	Technical Drawing and Plane Geometry	1
EL 216	Physics	2
CS 219	Basics of Computer	2
GE 225	General Geology	3
Total		20

                                                                                                                                                   

Second Year, Third Semester

Code	Subject	Credit Points
CO 301	Islamic Culture	1
EL 302	Foreign Language – English	2
EL 313	Higher Mathematics in Geosciences	2
EL 316	Physics	2
EL 317	Technical Mechanics	2
GC 318	Engineering Geodesy	2
GE 325	General Geology	3
GE 353	Crystallography	3
GE 327	Paleontology and Historical Geology	2
GE 347	Field Work (General Geology)	2
Total		21

                                                                                         

Second Year, Fourth Semester

Code	Subject	Credit Points
CO 401	Islamic Culture	1
EL 402	Foreign Language – English	2
EL 417	Technical Mechanics	2
EL 408	Electro mechanics	2
GC 418	Engineering Geodesy	2
GE 428	Mineralogy	3
GE 427	Paleontology and Historical Geology	3
GE 429	Structural Geology and Geological Mapping	3
GE 448	Field Work (Engineering Geodesy)	2
Total		20

                                                                                                                                                              

Third Year, Fifth Semester

Code	Subject	Credit Points
CO 501	Islamic Culture	1
GE 552	Use of Computer in Geology	2
GE 528	Mineralogy	3
GE 554	Crystal Optics	2
GE 558	Economic Geology	2
GE 529	Structural Geology and Geological Mapping	2
GE 560	Tectonics & Geodynamics	2
GE 538	Geomorphology	2
GE 531	Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology	3
GE 549	Field Work (Geological Mapping)	2
Total		21

                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Third Year, Sixth Semester

Code	Subject	Credit Points
CO 601	Islamic Culture	1
GE 630	Igneous Petrography	3
GE 658	Economic Geology	2
GE 660	Tectonics & Geodynamics	2
GE 632	Environmental Geology and Geohazards	3
GE 636	Prospecting and Exploration of Mines	2
GE 662	Overview of Mining	2
GC 620	GIS	2
GE 672	Mining Administration	3
Total		20

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Fourth Year, Seventh Semester

Code	Subject	Credit Points
CO 701	Islamic Culture	1
GE 739	Basics of Gemology	2
GE 756	Metamorphic Petrography	3
GE 757	Geochemistry	2
GE 758	Economic Geology	2
GE 759	Stratigraphy and Sedimentology	2
GE 761	Exploration Drilling	2
GE 734	Geophysics	2
GE 736	Prospecting and Exploration of Mines	2
GE 766	Academic Writing & Presentation	1
GE 772	Mining Law	2
Total		21

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Fourth Year, Eighth Semester

Code	Subject	Credit Points
CO 801	Islamic Culture	1
GE 839	Basics of Gemology	2
GE 857	Geochemistry	2
GE 859	Stratigraphy and Sedimentology	3
GE 842	Regional Geology and Stratigraphy of Afg	2
GE 834	Geophysics	2
GE 836	Prospecting and Exploration of Mines	2
GC 863	Underground Surveying	1
GC 864	Remote Sensing	2
EMRE 865	Economics of Exploration of Mines	2
GE 866	Academic Writing & Presentation	1
Total		20

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Fifth Year, Ninth Semester

Code	Subject	Credit Points
GE 972	Internship (Field Work before bachelor thesis)	5
GE 973	Bachelor Thesis	8
Total		13