The mining industry in the world has undergone a major metamorphosis in recent years. These changes have forced higher education to modify the curricula in a thorough way to meet the mining entrepreneurs’ needs. The paper’s scope is to answer the research question—how to attract students and implement Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in higher education in mining engineering? Based on the case of international cooperation carried out at the Faculty of Geoengineering, Mining and Geology of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology (WUST) within the framework of educational projects co-financed by European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities Raw Materials (EIT RM), the authors prove that the idea of sustainable development can be introduced into the system of teaching mining specialists at every level of their higher education (engineering and master’s studies), through developing their new competencies, introducing new subjects taking into account innovative solutions and technologies, or placing great emphasis on environmental and social aspects. Examples of new curricula show a good way to change into the new face of a mining engineer.

Mining has been embedded in the public consciousness as a dirty, non-innovative, outdated and environmentally harmful industry. Proper education, especially the academic one, becomes crucial to successfully change this image. This article depicts the initial assumptions of the international project Master in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology Integration in Mining (MEITIM), co-financed by EIT Raw Materials, that aims to diagnose the current state of Polish higher education in the field of mining at, among others, the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (WUST), concerning the experience of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) and Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT). The MEITIM project allowed identifying the directions of necessary changes in the didactic process as an indispensable set of skills and knowledge for a future mining graduate. Such activities are dictated by many guidelines and arrangements, among others, at the level of the European Commission or key industry institutions such as the International Council on Mining and Metals. These are key competencies that require significant changes in university curricula supporting sustainable development goals in innovative mining. The authors show that there is a link between the condition of the mining industry in Poland, its reputation, and the number of people who want to study mining.

Thermal waters from deep circulation systems are mixed with cold shallow system components during their ascent to drainage zones. In the current research, classic chemical geothermometers and geothermometric modeling using the GeoT app were employed to determine the temperatures of geothermal reservoirs in the Sudetic region. Moreover, models of primary deep components mixed with cold shallow circulation system components were used to determine their proportions, particularly water deposits. In the studied geothermal systems, the proportion of the cold component ranged from c. 46% to c. 75%. Classic cation thermometers (Na-K, Na-K-Ca) indicated a very wide temperature range and they proved rather unreliable. The reservoir temperatures estimated with silica thermometers ranged from 52 °C to 141 °C and they can be deemed more reliable. The temperatures obtained from modeling (54.5 ± 3–120 ± 4) were adopted as temperatures of waters pre-cooled conductively and then mixed with cold components. The temperatures of primary deep waters (74–225 °C) were adopted as geothermal system temperatures.

Lądek-Zdrój is situated within the tectonic unit of the Lądek-Śnieżnik metamorphic complex. Thermal water is captured by five springs and borehole L-2. These waters are characterized by TDS content in the range of 160–230 mg/L and predominance of HCO₃⁻ (15–100% meq), SO₄²⁺ (10–36% meq), and Na⁺ (57–91% meq) ions. Increased concentrations of radon, hydrogen sulfide, and fluoride ions (7–13 mg/L) determine the medicinal properties of these waters, classified as thermal waters of Na-HCO₃-(SO₄), F⁻, H₂S, Rn type, with temperatures of 18 to 30 °C and 41 to 45 °C in springs and in the L-2 borehole, respectively. At the turn of 2018 and 2019, a new borehole LZT-1 was drilled in the area of Lądek-Zdrój. It captured thermal waters with a temperature of 37.4 °C at the outflow. The water temperature at the bottom of the heated borehole reached about 59 °C. The lithology of rocks found in the recharged areas implied that the Ca²⁺ ions present in the studied waters originated from pyroxenes, amphiboles, calcite, calcium plagioclases, and fluorite. As for Na⁺ and K⁺ ions, they originate from sodium plagioclases, microcline, and orthoclase. The probable deposit temperature of waters from this borehole was estimated with the use of chemical geothermometers, as ranging from about 87 °C to 97 °C.

The thermal water deposit in Lądek-Zdrój (SW Poland) occurs in fractured reservoir rocks, and its hydrogeological regime is controlled by the features of the local geology and lithology of the hosting crystalline complexes, mainly impermeable high-grade metamorphosed mica schists and gneisses. The fractured thermal water aquifer is confined by a thrust fault-type aquitard that creates artesian pressure and, therefore, the water intakes and natural springs in Lądek Zdrój provide spontaneous outflow. Classical geothermometers yield an estimation of reservoir temperatures that ranges from 50 to 70 °C, with a maximum of 88 °C. The heat flux (HF) value of the Lądek-Zdrój region is 64 mW/m². The new borehole, LZT-1, is in the border zone of a local thermal anomaly with a geothermal degree of 25–27 m/°C. The estimated temperature at the bottom of the LZT-1 borehole, under thermal equilibrium conditions, ranges between 70 °C and 80 °C. A stream of heated waters from the deep system flows from the recharge areas, shaping the local geothermal anomaly and thus influencing the thermal conditions in the Lądek-Zdrój area. The activation of this water circulation system occurred in the Pleistocene.