
Mineralization in Europe
The European Commission has recently adopted a European strategy for data ‘COM(2020) 66’1, which foresees a data-driven innovation approach from which all the stakeholders involved in the European Green Deal ‘COM(2019) 640’2 will benefit. Following this track, EuroGeoSurveys (EGS) has set its priorities and deliverables for the year 2020 to be fully in line with these major EU policy communications. The two maps below are notable examples of the EGS community’s efforts
in this direction.
It provides an overview of 35 distinct mineral commodities that occur within the European Union.
It provides an overview of 35 distinct mineral commodities that occur within the European Union. The data for the map was initially created under the EU 7th Framework Programme project Minerals4EU, followed by the Horizon 2020 GeoERA Mintell4EU project and further extended under the EGS initiative European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI) where all data from the map are stored. The map was developed under the direction of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) and the auspices of
the Commission for the Geological Map of the World (CGMW) with contributions from 48 European geological services and more than 20 scientific institutions. The map was promoted during the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) 2020 event where EGS was present within the European Commission booth. Map2 specifies the Lithium Mineralization in Europe. Lithium is considered to be one of the critical raw materials in the EU and is used in the production of batteries. The Favourability Map for Lithium Mineralization in Europe was prepared by Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM) with input from the Forecasting and Assessing Europe’s Strategic
Raw Materials Needs (FRAME) GeoERA Project. The GeoERA ERA-Net is constituted of mostly EGS members that maintain EGDI. Looking at the geographical distribution of lithium in the map, it offers an interesting overview of opportunities