FRAME

FORECASTING AND ASSESSING EUROPE’S
STRATEGIC RAW MATERIALS NEEDS

Objectives

Unlike “more common metals” such as copper, zinc, lead and iron, many CRM do not form the main commodity (-ies) produced from operating mines, but are instead recovered as by-products (‘companion metals’) of the primary ores at some stage during processing. Europe has a rich and diverse mineral endowment including CRM, and a map showing the distribution of selected CRM deposits of Europe, based on the ProMine database was published by EGS’s Mineral Resources Expert Group during 2016 and an updated version base on the new CRM list was delivered in December 2017. Despite these efforts, there is still need for a more comprehensive pan-European identification and compilation of mineral potential and metallogenic areas of CRM. Such metallogenic areas can be defined by the presence of mineral occurrences and deposits, past and active mines, previous and ongoing exploration activities, favorable bedrock geology, geophysical signatures, geochemistry and predictive/prospectivity mapping.

The present project will build on previously and currently developed pan-European and national databases, and expand the strategic and CRM knowledge trough a compilation of mineral potential and metallogenic areas of critical raw materials resources in Europe, focused on related metal associations on land and the marine environment. Secondary resources, in terms of historical mining wastes and potential by-products will also be considered. The mineral resources targeted will have to extend beyond the current EU CRM list and include also minerals and metals (e.g. lithium, copper, and manganese) that are strategic for the European downstream industry in the mid- and long-term perspective.

To develop metallogenic research and models at regional and deposit scales, with special attention to strategic critical minerals for which the EU is highly dependent, in support of more efficient exploration and mining the following specific objectives need to be addressed:

• Identify and define the strategic minerals and metals that will make part of the metallogenetic map and related interpretations, focused on the current list of CRM, but considering also the strategic importance of some of those which were among the original candidates, such as phosphate rock, lithium, graphite, cobalt, niobium, tantalum, and others such as selenium, silver, copper, manganese, lead and iron ore. All minerals and metals collected and selected to be part of the metallogenetic map will simply go under the term CRM.

• Produce a metallogenetic map and increase the knowledge on the CRM endowments and resource potential in Europe and EU seas, based on,

– Mineralisations and deposits on land and the marine environment in which CRM make the main commodities, e.g. REE minerals related to carbonatite, nepheline syenites, pegmatites or paleoplacers, tungsten deposits related to granites, lithium feasible pegmatites, graphite hosted by schists.

– Mineralisations and deposits on land and the marine environment in which CRM make associated commodities, e.g. REE in bauxite deposits and manganese nodules; cobalt in nickel deposits and ferromanganese crusts; vanadium in iron-titanium deposits;, indium and tellurium in VMS and epithermal gold deposits

– Secondary resources, in terms of historical and modern mineral-based mining wastes (waste rocks, processing tailings, metallurgical residues) and by-products, e.g. REE in apatite concentrates related to iron extraction and red mud derived from alumina refining; indium in the waste streams of lead-zinc sulphide mining.

• Better understanding of the ore genetic links between major deposit types and hosted critical mineral and metal associations. Understanding also the mineralizing processes in different environments, including current deep sea, and using this understanding to predict and develop new mineral deposits or deposit types. This research also involves the characterization of ores, rocks, primary and secondary deposits etc. for significant elements and minerals, whose importance has increased and/or which represent cases where the occurrence is poorly understood or constrained. This objective and target will be interlinked and interactive with the tasks undertaken and the achievements resulted from GeoERA RM3 Metallogeny that will address the main deposit types and commodities.

• Be able to identify conditions and processes involved in the formation of the STR and CRM-potential deposits and develop conceptual models for their formation.

• Predictive targeting based on GIS exploration tools, of high potential mineral provinces and mining districts.

• Provide potential CRM resource estimates based on the UNECE classification system in close cooperation with RM 1/WP 5 on UNCF system.

• Display and distribute the map and description on the Information platform.

• Highlight mineral resources criticality to high-tech economy and downstream sectors.

This project will collect and act as a source of mineral information data that will support the continuous work going on in the DG-Grow, Raw Materials Supply Group and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Criticality of the EU commission.

Relation to existing programmes and projects:

European projects including the CRM dimension are M4EU, EuRare, ProSUM, ProMine and SCRREEN. An important output from the M4EU project is the European minerals knowledge data platform (EUMKDP) and the Minerals Yearbook. The ProSUM project which has just finished at year end 17 delivered the EU Urban Mine Knowledge Data Platform (EU-UMKDP), including also mining wastes. There are also national projects going on targeting the ore potential of CRM at country level. EuRare has compiled an overview of REE metallogenetic belts in Europe. However, no pan-European map of major metallogenic provinces for a suite of CRM has been published.

Budget and participants

Total funding requested: 932471.61€
Total in-kind contribution: 2207162.87€

Work package 1 – Project Coordination
Lead: LNEG
Contact: Daniel de Oliveira
daniel.oliveira@lneg.pt

Work package 2 – Communication, Dissemination and Exploitation
Lead: LNEG

Work package 3 – Critical and Strategic Raw Materials Map of Europe
Lead: SGU

Work package 4 – Critical Raw Materials in phosphate deposits, and associated black shales
Lead: RBINS

Work package 5 – Energy Critical Elements
Lead: NGU

Work package 6 – Conflict free Nb-Ta for the EU
Lead: SGU

Work package 7 – Historical mining sites revisited
Lead: BGR

Work package 8 – Link to Information Platform
Lead: LNEG

Project Philosophy

Europe shows an inevitably growing and accelerating consumption of mineral commodities. At the moment the question whether supply to meet these demands is adequate or not cannot be answered with any certainty because secure supply is a matter of knowing the resources and the ability to exploit them with respect to sustainability.

It is well established and broadly accepted by now that non-energy minerals underpin our modern economy. They are essential for manufacturing and renewable “green” energy supply. Most of the environmental technologies and applications (e.g. wind turbines, photovoltaic cells, electric and hybrid vehicles) allowing energy production from renewable resources will use, so called, high-tech metals (e.g. Rare Earth Elements (REE), Platinum Group Elements (PGE), niobium, lithium, cobalt, indium, gallium, vanadium, tellurium, selenium) that were derived or refined from minerals, which Europe is strongly import dependent on. More specific, industrial trends, particularly clean and carbon-reducing technologies, are disrupting traditional metal sectors, with a robust drive in the development of battery-raw material metals. We need to calculate the volumes of critical and potentially strategic metals (e.g. cobalt, niobium, vanadium, antimony, PGE and REE) and minerals that are currently not extracted in Europe. We further need to understand how high-tech elements are mobilised, where they occur and why some are associated with specific major industrial metals.

The high import dependence of strategic (STR) and critical raw materials (CRM) has a serious impact on the sustainability of the EU manufacturing industry. This problem can only be solved by more intense and advanced exploration for new mineral deposits on land and the marine environment. Seafloor mineral resources receive growing European interest with respect to the exploration potential of REE, cobalt, selenium, tellurium and other high-tech metals.

Figure 1 – Map of the global supply of EU critical materials.

Many critical minerals and metals may be collected through recycling of mining related waste materials. However, even with the important contribution from recycling, to secure resource efficient supply it will still be necessary to extract primary mineral deposits, focusing on applying new technologies for deep exploration and mining, turning low- grade ores to exploitable resources and reducing generation of mining wastes and large tailings by converting them to exploitable resources and solving environmental footprint and land-use challenges.

As well as the dependence on extra-EU supply concerns (Fig. 1), the production of many materials is reliant on a few countries. This concentration of supply also poses concern as these few countries dominate supply of individual or several materials: Brazil (niobium), USA (beryllium), South Africa (platinum), DRC (cobalt) and China (REE, antimony, magnesium, and tungsten). Twenty countries are the largest suppliers of the CRM contributing with 90% of supply. All major suppliers of the individual critical raw materials fall within this group of twenty countries (Fig. 1). At the same time all are predicted to experience demand growth, with lithium, niobium, gallium and heavy rare earth element forecast to have the strongest rates of demand growth, exceeding 8% per year for the rest of the decade. In addition, Russia is known to have an active programme on materials stockpiles and export restrictions, China has from time to time tightened the export quotas for REE ostensibly to secure internal supply, and the US has long had a stockpile for strategic defense materials.

Figure 2 – Critical Raw Material deposits of Europe map; 2017 edition – updated after release of CRM list 11/2017.

There is a need on exploration focus by challenging more effective CRM exploration and better understanding of their metallogenetic setting and mineral potential. Discovery of new STR and CRM resources needs enhanced information on surface and subsurface geology, new concepts of mineral resource potential, particularly in underexplored areas of limited geological knowledge and projects facilitating the need to span the geosciences and be truly multidisciplinary. The question about “where are undiscovered critical mineral resources likely to exist, and how much undiscovered mineral resource may be present” needs to be answered. All of the processes involved in the formation of a CRM deposit type, a good understanding of why CRM mineral deposits occur where they do (Fig. 2), ore exploration models and resource assessment studies, make significant steps to be taken. Irrespective of the CRM exploration potential level, better understanding of the geology and metallogeny, and delivery of high-quality CRM maps may lead to new or little-known types of CRM ore deposits and ore-forming systems. In addition, future CRM exploration will likely need to focus increasingly on blind deposits. The European Union has recognized these challenges and has reacted since 2008 with its Raw Materials Initiative, following Communications (COM(2008) 699 final; COM(2011) 25 final;) and the List of Critical Raw materials. Many National Geological Surveys have supported the European Commission in identifying potential bottlenecks on CRM as well as providing information how to overcome physical shortages. However, all these activities are punctual, on individual basis and hence, not lasting.

Work Packages

Work package 1

Objectives
The purpose of work package 1 is to lead, manage, coordinate and monitor the progress of the project, and ensure that the project meets the objectives stated for the work described in the Grant Agreement and that WP leaders and partners respect the timeline and deliverables.

Work package 2

Objectives
The objective of WP 2 is to widely disseminate the project results during the duration of the project as well as to maximize its impacts after the end of the project. WP 2 will focus in developing and implementing a comprehensive communication strategy plan that will define the project multiple stakeholders and the most suitable channels to reach them. WP 2 will support the technical and management project Work Packages in communicating their research in an understandable way for scientific and no-scientific audiences. In particular, WP 2 will:

• Disseminate information on the project, its progress and results to the wider community operating in the field of Forecasting and assessing Europe’s Strategic Raw Materials needs in the EU and beyond, including national, local, regional public authorities, other interested third parties and the general public.

• Ensure that the project benefits are clearly and systematically promoted, and foster a two-way dialogue with stakeholders.

• Raise awareness and visibility on the importance of improving Europe’s framework conditions for Forecasting and assessing Europe’s Strategic Raw Materials needs (FRAME).

• Foster the connection with existing EU and Member States initiatives and projects relevant to the Project outcomes.

Download Media Kit composed of:
· FRAME logo in full color and negative for web (72 dpi) and print (300dpi) usage.
· FRAME leaflet (english version).

Work package 3

Objectives
To develop metallogenic research and models at regional and deposit scales as well as prospectivity maps, with special attention to strategic critical minerals for which the EU is highly dependent, in support of more efficient exploration and mining the following specific objectives need to be addressed:

• Identify and define the strategic minerals and metals that will make part of the metallogenetic map and related interpretations, focused on the current list of CRM, but considering also the strategic importance of some of those which were among the original candidates, such as lithium, tellurium, selenium, silver, iron ore and others. All minerals and metals collected and selected to be part of the metallogenetic map will simply go under the term CRM.

• Produce metallogenetic map and increase the knowledge on the CRM endowments and resource potential in Europe and EU seas.

• Be able to identify conditions and processes involved in the formation of the CRM-potential deposits and develop conceptual models for their formation.

• Predictive targeting based on GIS exploration tools, of high potential mineral provinces and mining districts.

• Provide potential CRM resources estimates based on the UNECE classification system European scale prospectivity maps were produced 5 years ago by the ProMine project, using a relatively basic approach (Weight of Evidence, for most of them). They deserve to be improved using a more appropriate methodology for a continental scale approach and considering the latest (2017) CRM list. The main objective of the present task is to produce a renewed and updated set of continental scale mineral prospectivity maps, covering all EU member states and neighbouring countries (Ukraine, Balkans, Norway, Switzerland, etc.), (according to the 2017 CRM list from the European Commission, and based on the availability of data, i.e. known mineral deposits of targeted commodities). These prospectivity assessments will benefit from the latest developments in “data driven” mineral prospectivity methods that allow mapping at continental scale (i.e., CBA, or “Cell Based Association” method developed by BRGM).

• Display and distribute the map and description on the Information platform.

• Highlight mineral resources criticality to high-tech economy and downstream sectors.

Work package 4

Objectives
This work package (WP 4) “Critical Raw Materials in phosphate deposits, and associated black shales” is dedicated to the assessment of economic potential of igneous and sedimentary phosphate deposits (and their host black shales) in Europe, especially regarding Critical Raw Materials (CRM). These deposits could significantly contribute to a secure sustainable access to a large proportion of Europe’s requirement for these CRM.

This project proposal is therefore consistent with the SRT “RM4 – Forecasting and Assessing Europe’s Strategic Raw Materials Needs”. More precisely, this WP aims to provide an overview about phosphate mineralization (and associated economically interesting black shales). It will comprise detailed mineralogical and geochemical characterization of key phosphate deposits, sedimentary and igneous in origin. These metallogenic, mineralogical and geochemical studies will help to decipher the processes leading to CRM enrichment in these deposits. Since part of the phosphorites in Europe are hosted within metalliferous black shales, the latter will be considered as well, with the view of a combined and rational exploitation of these resources. Another aim is the development of a procedure to prepare and analyze samples from phosphate deposits. This would be helpful to provide internally consistent geochemical data at a European level for this type of mineralization. Finally, the data from the project will contribute to databases, such as those from Minerals4EU, the European Union Raw Materials Knowledge Base (EURMKB), SRT RM1, and the GeoERA Information Platform.

Despite the obvious interest, most phosphate deposits, and their host-rocks, have not been studied for some time (a few decades), especially with respect to their potential for CRM. The identification of the economic potential of phosphate deposits, whether they are of sedimentary or igneous origin, could significantly contribute to secure access to many elements listed as critical by the EC. The aim of this project is to provide an overview of phosphate mineralization (and economically interesting black shales) in Europe, with special emphasis on their CRM content. The project aims to identify new areas of interest for CRM.

More precisely, the objectives are:

• Mineralogical and geochemical data will be acquired on selected phosphate deposits and occurrences. WP partners have access to data and samples of phosphate deposits/occurrences (as well as host-rocks) within their respective countries. This will facilitate (1) the development of databases on these deposits, and (2) access to samples for mineralogical and geochemical studies.

• Investigate more carefully a selection of key phosphate deposits, which will be representative of the different types of phosphate mineralization encountered in Europe. The goal will be (i) to provide an up-to-date scientific overview about the genesis of phosphate deposits in Europe, (ii) to determine more clearly the potential for and speciation of CRM in phosphate deposits (and host metalliferous black shales), and (iii) to investigate the processes leading to their enrichment.

• Establish a procedure for sample preparation and analysis of phosphate samples with the objective of providing internally consistent geochemical data on a European level.

• An enhanced database will be developed, compiling data collected during this project and information from the literature and older databases. These data will be integrated into existing databases, such as Minerals4EU, the European Union Raw Materials Knowledge Base (EURMKB), SRT RM1, and the GeoERA Information Platform. They will also be available in map format.

The expertise of the partners in the fields of ore geology, mineralogy, and geochemistry, and access to relevant, state-of-the-art facilities (SEM, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, XRF, ICPMS) available at GSB, CGS will significantly contribute to achieving these goals. Most of the WP partners have been collaborating on these topics for several years through Expert Groups established by EuroGeoSurveys (MREG and GEEG) Moreover, some of the WP partners are already involved in national and international projects, the outcomes of which will contribute to the present WP. Examples include EuroGeoSource, Minventory, Minerals4EU, SCREEN (Solutions for Critical Raw Materials), MIREU (EU network of mining and metallurgy regions), and ORAMA (Optimising quality of information in Raw Materials data collection across Europe). The expertise of, and cooperation between the partners will be further developed within this project.

Work package 5

Objectives
Natural graphite, lithium and cobalt are essential components in modern and mobile energy storage technology, most notably in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. The current work package will investigate, generate and compile data on the occurrence and production of these “energy critical elements” in order to provide a better and more accurate basis for exploration and exploitation, as well as land use management, and to provide high quality mineral intelligence data to the European data portals. Natural graphite and cobalt are both critical raw materials in the 2017 EU criticality assessment, while lithium is located above the supply risk threshold.

The main application of natural graphite today is for refractories in the manufacture of steel and other metals. However, it is believed that the consumption for batteries will grow significantly over the coming years with increased electrification in the transport sector. Today natural graphite is produced in Norway, Austria and Ukraine, with Norway as the largest European supplier to the EU. In addition to Norway, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden and Finland are known to have potential for natural graphite. A pan-European compilation of resources, resource potentials, and geological data for natural graphite is essential in order to understand and assess the European potential for energy critical elements, and is a major objective in the work package.

The main application of Lithium today is for rechargeable batteries (Roskill 2016). Despite numerous European lithium ore deposits, used for ceramic industry needs, all batteries are made of non-European lithium. In Europe, lithium resources occur in several forms, including hard rock hosted and geothermal brines. Portugal, Spain, Austria, Finland, France, Czech Republic, Germany and Ireland among others, have high potential for Li-rich pegmatites and granites. Unknown/unconventional Li deposit types have not be considered, and a review of European Li ore deposit types & models is needed to improve mining exploration ore targeting. Knowledge on these resources (Minerals4EU, ProMine) are heterogeneous and considerably reduces the possibility for an exhaustive assessment of European reserves. The goal is first to complete existing databases and to extend them by the use of data augmentation. A second objective is to estimate the lithium reserves, of all types in Europe.

In the global perspective, cobalt is typically produced as byproduct of nickel production; the only significant exception to this rule is the deposits in the southernmost Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where cobalt is predominantly associated with copper mineralizations. Globally, economical cobalt deposits can be classified to three major types: 1) lateritic Ni-Co ores, 2) certain cobalt-enriched sedimentary rock-hosted copper deposits (only in DRC), and 3) mafic-ultramafic rock associated sulphidic Ni-Cu-PGE ores. Finland is currently the only EU country producing cobalt from its mines. In the entire Europe, also Russia has mine production of cobalt, from the Pechenga nickel mines. All countries producing nickel do have potential to also produce cobalt, as these two metals overwhelmingly occur in same ore minerals. However for the entire Europe, the mine production data available indicate no cobalt production in countries producing nickel: including Albania, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Norway, Poland, and Spain. That these countries do not recover cobalt from their mined nickel ores suggests challenges in ore processing/recovery and/or insignificant cobalt concentrations in the ore, causing processing to be uneconomical. Globally significant cobalt refining has been done in Finland for decades. During years 1997−2003, Finland was even the largest cobalt refiner in the world. After that, China took over the leading position, but Finland is still the second biggest refiner globally. Annual refined cobalt production in Finland has ranged between 8 000 – 12 500 tpa.

Work package 6

Objectives
The chemically related elements niobium (Nb) and tantalum (Ta) are two of the most particular critical metals (critical raw materials; CRM), of which Ta, and associated Nb are extensively sourced as so-called conflict mineral from the central African region today. As such, their mine production is associated with abhorrent and often slave-like conditions for mine workers, which include children, as well as being a fundamental source of income for local warlords. While legislation is now in part being enforced to “guarantee” conflict-free Nb and Ta in industrial products, this is very far from being without major caveats. An alternative, or complimentary action to this, is to find potential sources of these rare metals within the EU and associated countries.

The main objectives of this WP are therefore to do a survey of the pan-European distribution of the conflict metals Nb-Ta and also enhance their exploration interest and potential in order to produce them ethically and indigenous to the Community. The deposits will be classified based on genetic type and subdivided as to timing of formation and regional distribution. As far as possible, the detailed ore mineralogy of Nb-Ta will be collated and described for the assessed deposits/mineralisations, to maximise the usefulness with regards to processing and associated evaluation parameters of their economic potential. Potential by-products, not least of other critical or strategic metals and minerals will be taken into account. This survey and its outcomes will also form the basis for developing recommendations for future exploration for these metals in Europe. Another important objective is to discuss and make draft recommendations for future projects to improve conditions for Nb-Ta and other CRM production in central Africa.

Work package 7

Objectives
The project aims at improving European regional geological and metallogenic knowledge regarding future potential of existing mine sites and will contribute to improving pan-European geological information on CRM by providing an overview and case studies on critical raw materials contained in known European deposits while focus will be given to former highly and longtime active mining regions.

The project will feed site-specific data of ore deposits with CRM potential into the pan-European knowledge base on raw materials and thus broaden the understanding of the raw material potential in Europe (including secondary raw materials from mine wastes).

The project will generate data and additional information which will be harvested into the GeoERA Information Platform and contributes also to the improvement of transparent information flow and general knowledge improvement.

Information provided by the project can contribute to special planning topics and ensure an integration of raw material potential into future land use and policy planning and thus to the optimal use and sustainable management of the subsurface.

Knowledge generated in the project can be used as an additional source of information by European, national and regional policy makers, industry and other stakeholders.

Work package 8

Objectives
The main objective is to identify and discuss requirements in close dialogue with the Information platform (IP) team.

Furthermore, this work-package is to ensure that the principles and guidelines provided by the GIP-project is followed and implemented.

Facilitate that the information generated is provided to the improvement of the European Union Raw Materials Knowledge Base (EURMKB), as crucial input to the minerals yearbook and inventory information system (RM1), and ensure the information uploaded to the EGDI repository and extensions.

Please click here for an example of the user interface of EGDI.

Partners

Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, I. P.

Portugal

(Project Coordinator)

Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources

Germany

Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières

France

Czech Geological Survey

Czech Republic

Geological Survey of Estonia

Estonia

Geological Survey Sweden

Sweden

Geological Survey Ireland

Ireland

Geological Survey of Finland

Finland

Geological Survey of Croatia

Croatia

Hellenic Survey of Geology & Mineral Exploration

Greece

Instituto Geológico y Minero de España

Spain

Mining and Geological Survey of Hungary

Hungary

Geological Survey of Norway

Norway

Polish Geological Institute

Poland

Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

Belgium

State Informational Geological Fund of Ukraine

Ukraine

Institutul Geologic al Romaniei

Romania

Geološki Zavod Slovenije

Slovenia

Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale

Italy

Geologische Bundesanstalt

Austria

News/Events

Project results
24 NOVEMBER 2022

Project results are available through the European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI):

https://www.europe-geology.eu/

(Use the “Map Viewer” and “Data Search” tools)

FRAME and the GeoERA RM projects in the EU Commission
20 MAY 2022

Look out for FRAME and the GeoERA RM projects in the EU Commission booth at the upcoming PDAC 2022 in Toronto, June 13-15.

GeoERA Raw Materials Monograph ‒ the past and the future
26 APRIL 2022

The termination of the GeoERA projects leaves an important legacy for all as the innovation in mineral intelligence has been clearly shown throughout the course of the projects. Coordinated by Antje Wittenberg of BGR, GeoERA Raw Materials has addressed a wide range of aspects and produced new data, information and knowledge that is currently being requested and used. GeoERA Raw Materials has gone that little bit further and published a comprehensive monograph based on the results obtained in the EUROLITHOS, FRAME, MINDeSEA and MINTELL4EU projects.

The GeoERA Raw Materials Monograph now produced reflects some of the most relevant results obtained and contains not only information on raw material potentials in Europe and the use of UNFC/UNRMS, but also lists and links to the most important products and scientific publications conducted.

Download

GeoERA RM-MREG Meeting, LNEG 28-30 Sept.2021
28 SEPTEMBER 2021

After the confinement measures imposed by covid, one of the first scientific and strategic steps in larger rates of liberty has resulted in the GeoERA-MREG meeting that is taking place at the Alfragide Campus of LNEG in Portugal. These three days of meetings and discussions will take place in a mixed F2F and on-line format to allow a broad audience for the important issues under discussion.

For many this event marks the first international trip in over 18 months after being confined by the covid pandemic. LNEG is taking every measure to make this meeting the safest one possible by taking all the measures indicated by the Directorate general of Health.

Alternative materials, the circular economy and globalization cannot meet European societal needs in terms of mineral raw materials. New production sites for minerals and rocks (dimension stone) need to be established while respecting sustainability and responsible sourcing policies. GeoERA Raw Materials is recalling Europe’s long tradition in quarrying and mining that are nowadays still active in some regions. The re-evaluated potential of historical mining sites and new areas may add to reduce Europe’s vulnerability and add to the security and sustainability of mineral raw materials supply from European sources at the top of the value chain.

Nearly 40 National and Regional Geological Survey Organizations and Marine Institutes share expertise and information improving the EU Raw Materials Knowledge Base on European on- and off-shore resources. Coherent data and information, modern analyses, new insights and method developments are part of the work. Foresight and forecasting of the raw material supply potential of Europe becomes more reliable though increased data quality and its harmonization. Some highlights of the scientific work dig deeper through the very scientific projects EuroLITHOS, FRAME, MINDeSEA and Mintell4EU. GeoERA Raw Materials creates valuable, accessible and public data and information for policy-makers and end-users of geological data and minerals information in Europe that is publicly available through EGDI and in line with the EU Raw Materials Information System (RMIS).

This event will discuss the current mineral intelligence issues considering the present concerns by industry and their leaders, the EU Commission, responsible and sustainable mineral sourcing and the criticality of raw materials and considers what are the next steps needed.

FRAME project travels to Angola
10 MARCH 2021

The FRAME project travelled abroad to Luanda, Angola, and met the Minister of Mineral Resources, Petroleum and Gas, Dr. Diamantino Azevedo and the Secretary of State for Geology and Mines, Dr. Jânio Correa Victor. An opportunity to showcase the work done within the scope of predictability mapping in FRAME and the importance to use this method of prediction of new mining areas was discussed with both who were very interested in using this methodology in Angola. Both were presented with a FRAME USB Stick and lanyard with the information of the project.

FRAME in the Advances in Critical Mineral Research
28 january 2021

EN
Advances in critical mineral research: A series of three regional sessions organized by the Geological Survey of Canada, Geoscience Australia, and the United States Geological Survey 12th, 19th and 26st of February.

Daniel de Oliveira (Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, Portugal), FRAME project lead, and Javier González Sanz (Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, Spain) MINDeSEA project lead, are plenary speakers in the February 19 session covering Europe and Africa: The past, present, an future directions of critical minerals research.

Their talk is entitled: “Mapping and studying the European critical elements in submarine and on-land mineral deposits for the sustainable future”.

For more information, including registration details, please visit American Geoscience Institute – Advances in critical mineral research: A forum in memory of Victor Labson.

PT
“Advances in critical mineral research”: uma série de três sessões regionais organizadas pelo Geological Survey of Canada, Geoscience Australia e o United States Geological Survey nos dias 12, 19 e 26 de fevereiro.

Daniel de Oliveira (Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, Portugal), líder do projeto FRAME e Javier González Sanz (Instituto Geológico e Minero de España, Espanha) líder do projeto MINDeSEA, são palestrantes plenários na sessão de 19 de fevereiro cobrindo a Europa e a África: passado, presente e futuro direções da pesquisa de minerais críticos.

A palestra é intitulada: “Mapping and studying the European critical elements in submarine and on-land mineral deposits for the sustainable future”.

Para obter mais informações, incluindo os detalhes de registo, visite American Geoscience Institute – Advances in critical mineral research: A forum in memory of Victor Labson.

Raw Materials Week 2020
6 november 2020

Raw Materials Week 2020 has been cancelled due to Covid. However, there are interesting events lined up. Please click here to see the program.

The Role of Materials in the post-Covid Society
14 october 2020

This Reflection Paper addresses the role of materials in the post-COVID society and summarizes positioning, potential solutions, and recommendations that stem from the European Materials community (Alliance for Materials A4M) towards Horizon Europe in the Post-COVID scenario. The paper compiles existing Strategic Research Agendas (SRAs) of different materials stakeholders and address a specific reflection in the context of the current COVID19 pandemic. It puts forward proposals for strategic research and innovation activities to the European Commission, Member States, and the European Parliament, taking into account the objectives of the Green Deal Priorities and Recovery Plan.

For more news see here.

Can mining make the world a greener place?
13 october 2020

Do you know which metals power your mobile phone? Or what it takes to manufacture a laptop? And how are we going to make all the electric cars we need for a green future? Join our panel as they discuss our growing demand for new technologies, and the natural resources we need to create them. We'll cover the practicalities of finding the raw materials the world relies on, and whether mining can really be sustainable.

The event will offer a forum for discussion and debate on how mining should be part of our society. Speakers with diverse professional and personal backgrounds will share their thoughts and engage with the public to answer questions and share ideas. The event organisers are committed to hosting a respectful exchange of views on a complex subject and invite your participation.

Online 3 and 4 December 2020, see the link here.

Launch of the European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA)
25 september 2020

ERMA will be launched on 29 September via live stream through the European Commission streaming services.

See the link here.

See ERMA Agenda.

Critical Raw Materials Resilience: Charting a Path towards greater Security and Sustainability
3 september 2020

It’s official! The new Critical Raw Materials was announced today by the EU Commission.
Access to resources is a strategic security question for Europe’s ambition to deliver the Green Deal. The new industrial strategy for Europe proposes to reinforce Europe’s open strategic autonomy, warning that Europe’s transition to climate neutrality could replace today’s reliance on fossil fuels with one on raw materials, many of which we source from abroad and for which global competition is becoming more fierce. The EU’s open strategic autonomy in these sectors will therefore need to continue to be anchored in diversified and undistorted access to global markets for raw materials. At the same time, and in order to decrease external dependencies and environmental pressures, the underlying problem of rapidly increasing global resources demand needs to be addressed by reducing and reusing materials before recycling them.

The enormous appetite for resources (energy, food and raw materials) is putting extreme pressure on the planet, accounting for half of greenhouse gas emissions and more than 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress. Scaling up the circular economy will be vital to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, while decoupling economic growth from resource use and keeping resource use within planetary boundaries [COM(2020) 474 final].

FRAME is doing its part to reduce external dependency of CRM by updating INSPIRE compliant data sets of CRM to produce favourability maps for the CRM that will indicate possible new sources of these materials within Europe.

The Communication is available here.

EU sounds alarm on critical raw materials shortages
31 august 2020

Read full article here.

GBA joins FRAME
25 June 2020

FRAME welcomes the Geological Survey of Austria (GBA) as a formal partner in FRAME.
GBA will be contributing significantly to the data needs in WP3 and WP5.

Welcome aboard!

Lithium Mystery Solved: It's Exploding Stars,
Not The Big Bang Or Cosmic Rays
3 June 2020

One of the Energy Critical Elements that FRAME is actively focusing its research on is lithium. We are all aware of the importance of lithium in the manufacture of batteries and it has become a daily reminder that we cannot do without it.

The way that it has come to be in the earth’s crust and in the solar system has had researchers doing some ground breaking work for decades.

New research led by astrophysicist Sumner Starrfield points to how lithium came to be ubiquitous in the solar system.

See the news here.

“EGU2020 Sharing Geoscience online” was a solution to get around the current virus pandemic.
15 May 2020

Will Harcourt, PhD Student at the University of St Andrews gives his views on this “new format” of conferences.

You can read his views here.

FRAME and GeoERA were contributors to one session on May 8 – see news of that event in another news item on this page.

FRAME mid-term evaluation – all good!
30 April 2020

FRAME has been evaluated at the half way stage and has been awarded the following scores:

Monitoring of progress indicators – score: Excellent progress (the project has fully achieved its objectives and goals for the period)
Scientific review – score: Excellent progress (the project has fully achieved its objectives and goals for the period)
Review of the theme progress – score: Excellent progress (the project has fully achieved its objectives and goals for the period)
GeoERA Progress evaluation – score: Excellent progress (the project has fully achieved its objectives and goals for the period)

The overall assessment is therefore: Excellent progress (the project has fully achieved its objectives and goals for the period)

This is a testament that the team is working in unison towards common goals and the project is delivering what it has promised. Moreover, it means that the project is on-track to make some innovative findings at project completion.

Well done to all. Let’s keep up the good work!
Daniel de Oliveira (Project Lead)

Subscribe our Newsletter

FRAME Newsletters

Issue 9 | October 2021

Issue 8 | June 2021

Issue 7 | October 2020

Issue 6 | June 2020

Issue 5 | February 2020

Issue 4 | October 2019

Issue 3 | June 2019

Issue 2 | February 2019

Issue 1 | October 2018

Deliverables

FRAME WP1 - deliverable 1.1

FRAME WP1 - deliverable 1.2

FRAME WP2 - deliverable 2.1

FRAME WP2 - deliverable 2.2

FRAME WP2 - deliverable 2.3

FRAME WP2 - deliverable 2.5

FRAME WP4 - deliverable 4.1

FRAME WP4 - deliverable 4.2

FRAME WP4 - deliverable 4.3

FRAME WP4 - deliverable 4.4

FRAME WP4 - deliverable 4.5

Other NEWS

The Bull Case for Energy Metals
Going into 2019

GeoERA and FRAME at EGU General Assembly in May
23 April 2020

Europe is facing a number of societal challenges that are firmly linked to subsurface resources: groundwater, geo-energy and raw materials. Our society needs economic wealth and the use of resources is fundamental to this, while at the same time a healthy and secure environment for all citizens needs to be ensured. The growing population and the demographic change add to the pressure on surface and subsurface resources and uses. Moreover, the industrial transformation envisaged by the EU will increase the need for coordinated subsurface research and innovation underpinned by reliable and easy access to subsurface data. In order to support such transition, integrated European subsurface knowledge, development and sharing of improved processes and the use of new innovative technologies throughout the value chain will be essential. The Geological Survey Organisations of 32 countries within Europe laid the cornerstone to this achievement by establishing the GeoERA Programme. GeoERA’s main objectives to contribute to the more integrated and efficient management and more responsible exploitation and use of the subsurface are in line with several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

GeoERA, within which FRAME is included, will be the focus of a special session at this year’s EGU General Assembly.

This session will address integrated European geoscience services that will provide advice and data to Europe towards a sustainable subsurface management, integrating geo-resources (energy, water, raw materials) and environmental conditions (energy storage, natural hazards, anthropogenic impacts, biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation), supported by a cross-thematic online information platform.

Because of the current Covid19 situation, this session is going to take place virtually through the web and FRAME invites everyone to join in the presentations and discussion sessions.

For the overall session please click here.

The FRAME-specific sessions are:

· FRAME’s (Forecasting and Assessing Europe’s Strategic Raw Materials Needs) contribution to the “European Green Deal”
Daniel P. S. de Oliveira, Maria João Ferreira, Martiya Sadeghi, Nikolaus Arvanitidis, Sophie Decrée, Håvard Gautneb, Eric Gloaguen, Tuomo Törmänen, Helge Reginiussen, Henrike Sievers, Lídia Quental Quental, and Antje Wittenberg.

· Lithium, Cobalt and Graphite occurrences in Europe, Results from GeoEra FRAME project wp 5
Håvard Gautneb, Eric Gloaguen, and Tuomo Törmänen.

· Prospectivity mapping of niobium and tantalum in Europe; a part of the GEOERA- FRAME project
Martiya Sadeghi, Guillaume Bertrand, Helge Reginiussen, Nikolas Arvanitidis, Erik Jonsson, and Daniel P.S. de Oliveira.

· FRAME: towards conflict-free Nb-Ta for the European Union
Helge Reginiussen, Erik Jonsson, Susana María Timón Sánchez, Alejandro Díez Montes, Klemen Teran, Rute Salgueiro, Augusto Filipe, Carlos Inverno, and Daniel P.S. de Oliveira.

Please make a note:
Friday 08 May, 08:30 – 10:15

FRAME at Raw Materials Week 2019
Brussels, 18-22 November 2019

GeoERA Raw Material adds to an improved knowledge base ensuring the sustainable management of the subsurface by providing reliable and harmonised information and is made up of four projects, namely: Eurolithos, FRAME, MINDeSEA and Mintell4EU. FRAME was present at this year’s Raw Materials Week with high visibility posters at the event venue running the length of the week on a continuous basis.

During the week’s activities, the Raw Materials theme members handed out generic promotional materials (project flyers and USB sticks) to the participants in attendance guaranteeing maximum visibility for FRAME and GeoERA as well as the other raw materials projects.

During the many instances where FRAME was mentioned, one deserves particular highlight: During the 9th Trilateral EU-US-Japan Conference on Critical Raw Materials, Policy officer Milan Grohol from DG GROW referred to GeoERA Raw Materials as an important step forward to achieve Commissions goals.

GeoERA Raw Materials with FRAME participated in the ORAMA Final Event sharing some of its more pertinent results and the synergies with ongoing H2020 projects and the current EU Commission focus points on raw materials. The objectives of FRAME were presented and how these tie in with current EU Commission priority topics such as the circular economy, the Battery Initiative, the list of Critical Raw Materials and the responsible sourcing of raw materials.

Raw Materials Week 19 provided a good platform to get exposure for FRAME and there was a lot of interest demonstrated by the Joint Research Council, interested individuals and representatives of the USGS, in the results of the project.

Sign up for our regular newsletter!

(Click image to enlarge).

GeoERA Raw Materials goes to Madrid
6 November 2019

Continuing the string of GeoERA Raw Materials meetings that have in the last two editions being held B2B with the Mineral Resources Expert Group Meetings (MREG), a GeoERA meeting was held (05/11/2019) at IGME Ríos Rosas, Madrid.

Discussions centered around short term strategies and the upcoming Mid Term Review Meeting in March next year.

During the meeting the group visited the IGME Library where, amongst maps dated from the mid 1800's, a genuine copy of Georgii Agricolae De re metallica libri XII was also shown.

Previous

Next

(Click image to enlarge).

What are “Energy Critical Elements”?
1 October 2019

The term “energy-critical elements” was coined by a joint committee of the American Physical Society and Materials Research Society assembled in 2009 to investigate the material resources available to support emerging energy technologies (Green et al., 2012).

ECEs are chemical elements that are necessary for emerging or transformative energy technologies but whose supply risk could limit research, development, or deployment of a technology. Typically, ECEs have not been widely extracted, traded, or utilized in the past and lack a well-established, regulated, or stable market. Non-rare-earth examples include indium for solar cells and energy-efficient displays, tellurium for solar cells and detectors, platinum for novel catalysts, and rhenium for energy-saving superalloys.

ECE lists are neither universal nor constant over time. In 1940, the emerging energy technology was nuclear fission; hence, the ECEs of the day were natural uranium, deuterium, and highly purified graphite, the last two for neutron moderation. Indeed, at that time, committees recommended policies for these then-ECEs, but world events prompted the classification of nuclear policies as national secrets. Today, uranium, carbon, and deuterium are still critical elements, but they are not energy-critical elements, as they are now governed by highly regulated markets, national security considerations, and public concerns. By 2050, one hopes that progress on sustainable development will likewise have moved some elements off today’s ECE lists, perhaps to be replaced by other elements (Green et al., 2012).

By analogy to nuclear power in 1940, today’s new or anticipated markets in sustainable energy involving hydro, wind, sea, geothermal, and solar power require a new set of raw materials. Not to be forgotten, however, advanced nuclear reactors are considered by many as a sustainable technology (Englert et al. 2012). Low environmental impact throughout a material’s life cycle is a key to sustainability for any ECE supply.

Read more...

ECEs in FRAME’s perspective
FRAME is focusing on the concerns by the European Commission regarding the decarbonizing of the economy and e-mobility issues.
Natural graphite, lithium and cobalt are essential components in modern and mobile energy storage technology, most notably in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. FRAME is investigating, generating and compiling data on the occurrence and production of these “energy critical elements” in order to provide a better and more accurate basis for exploration and exploitation, as well as land use management, and to provide high quality mineral intelligence data for European data portals. Natural graphite and cobalt are both critical raw materials in the 2017 EU criticality assessment, while lithium is located above the supply risk threshold.
Currently Europe is heavily dependent on import of these element as there is no primary production of Li (for the battery industry) and natural graphite (except in Norway) and only minor production of cobalt (Finland, 1% of world mine production, 8 % of refined cobalt and cobalt chemicals).
References:
Englert, M., Krall, L., & Ewing, R. (2012). Is nuclear fission a sustainable source of energy? MRS Bulletin, 37(4), 417-424. doi:10.1557/mrs.2012.6
Green, M., Espinal, L., Traversa, E., & Amis, E. (2012). Materials for sustainable development. MRS Bulletin, 37(4), 303-309. doi:10.1557/mrs.2012.51
Tuomo Törmänen, Håvard Gautneb, Eric Glouagen, Daniel de Oliveira.

Data harmonisation and supply Workshop
18 September 2019

The issues of data harmonisation and supply are being discussed in the FRAME Workshop taking place at LNEG during 17-18th of September. Discussions have been lively and useful to streamline and allow for the supply of prospectivity maps for critical and strategic minerals in Europe.

Attending the workshop are the work package leaders representing 7 EU countries (Portugal, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Finland and France) as well as members of Mintell4EU and several IT experts from various countries.

(Click image to enlarge).

Moncorvo deposit in northern Portugal
23 July 2019

In line with the identification of possible new sources of phosphate in Europe, LNEG proceeded to sample core from the Moncorvo deposit in northern Portugal. This work was carried out under the WP 4 “Critical Raw Materials in phosphate deposits and associated black shales” of the FRAME project.

The core was made available by MTI Ferro de Moncorvo, S.A. and our thanks to them for being perfect hosts and making the material available.

Previous

Next

(Click image to enlarge).

Why is phosphorous important?

Phosphorous is an important part of many of the products that are indispensable to modern living and good health. A single phosphorus compound can be used in a broad range of applications, including pharmaceuticals, personal care products, industrial & institutional cleaners and other technical uses, such as in fire extinguishers.

In addition to their versatility, government authorities also recognize them as safe for worker exposure and handling and for use in the home.

Additionally, phosphorous is on the Critical Raw Materials of Europe list (COM(2017) 490 final).

Read more...

A brief history of Moncorvo
The Moncorvo iron mines were the object of primitive mining from the Iron Age until the end of the Eighteenth century. The first experience in proto-industrial mining took place in the 1790s; in the 1870’s the interest in the Moncorvo mining concessions was renewed and as many as 35 concessions were registered. In 1897 most of the concessions were acquired by the Company “Syndicat Franco-Iberique” that initiates “systematic and methodical prospecting works with 1396 chemical analyses.”
Between 1930 and 1934 mining galleries were opened in Mua, with the extraction of 15,279 tons of ore, as per the records in the Boletim de Minas [Mines Bulletin]. The prospecting and extraction works of the “Companhia Mineira de Moncorvo” continued until 1942. After the 2^nd World War the Portuguese Government took possession of the concessions of that German company and, in 1957, the management of company was transferred to “Exploration & Bergbau”, part of the Thyssen group, under the name of Minacorvo, Lda.
That year was constructed the pilot treatment plant and, in 1976, Minacorvo was dissolved and its concessions integrated in Ferrominas SARL, later Ferrominas EP, ending with the creation of EDM EP in 1986.
1,796,535 tons of Moncorvo iron ore were exported between 1951 and 1976.
Geological background
The Moncorvo Ordovician Ironstones are located east of the town of Moncorvo in northeastern Portugal forming a long ridge of iron bearing quartzites outcropping at the top of Reboredo Mountain Range and at Mua extending for 8 km and 0.850 km respectively. Ore reserves in Moncorvo may probably exceed 1000 million tonnes and this makes Moncorvo the largest iron ore deposit in the European Union (d’Orey, 1999).
MTI report 558 million tons of proven and probable reserves and 254 million tons of possible reserves (see their site).
In the Moncorvo synclinorium, ferriferous quartzites of the Malhada Member of the Marão Formation (Lower Ordovician) comprise interbedded layers of fine grained metasedimentary deposits, with a maximum thickness of 40 cm, and mainly composed of quartz and muscovite, but also containing phosphates of the lazulite-scorzalite series, zircon, tourmaline, hematite, locally with magnetite cores, titanite, and, more rarely, monazite, xenotime, rutile, Fe and Ti hydroxides and chlorite.
The geochemistry of immobile elements (Ti, Zr, La and Sc) suggests that the metasedimentary rocks have been deposited near an active continental margin, but the subsequent low-grade metamorphism and metasomatic/hydrothermal processes, related to the Variscan Orogeny, had a significant influence on their mineralogy and elemental and isotopic geochemistry.
The mineralogical, textural and granulometric contrast between these metasedimentary deposits and the ferriferous quartzite, as well as the occurrence of Lower Ordovician volcanic/volcano-sedimentary episodes in the Central Iberian Zone, suggest that these deposits could have incorporated detritus derived from volcanic/hypabyssal rocks, older than the upper Floian-Dapingian age (471-467 Ma). However, the high contents of some incompatible elements, the CaO/Na2O ratio between 0.33 and 1.77, the REE pattern with (La / Lu)N = 3.37 to 7.96 and a slight negative Eu anomaly, (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr)i varying from 0.71156 to 0.71304 and εNdt values of -10.8 to -10.0 indicate that the primary volcanogenic materials could have had a rhyodacitic to dacitic affinity, deriving from partial melting of metasediments similar to those of the Douro Group and equivalents from the northern Central Iberian Zone. Dating of zircon by U-Pb ID-TIMS indicates a formation age of 484.5 ± 3.0 Ma for the original volcanogenic materials (Teixeira et al., 2015).
The Moncorvo Ordovician ironstones in northeastern Portugal consist of iron ore sedimentary horizons frequently interbanded with psamites and quartzites. Compact poorly banded massive layers may exceed 90 m in thickness, which is quite an extraordinary feature for a Phanerozoic deposit. If the thick ness of Precambrian deposits may reach a few hundred meters, the thickness of Phanerozoic deposits never exceed a maximum of 15 m generally forming a number of comparatively thin layers confined to a particular member of a sedimentary sequence. Initial reports on feasibility studies have found the ores to be too enriched in deleterious materials (phosphorus) and abundance of silica.
The iron content of the Moncorvo ores is low, ranging in composition from 35 to 43 wt.% Fe with an average value of 37 wt.% Fe. Phosphorus is quite high ranging from 0.3 to 0.7 wt.%, some samples exceeding 1.2 wt.% P. Alumina is fairly constant with an average 6 to 8 wt. % Al₂03. The silica content is high, ranging from an average 27 wt.% Si0₂ at Mua to an average 37 wt.% Si0₂ in all Reboredo Mountain Range deposits. CaO, MnO, Ti0₂ and Cr₂0₃ are very low and total alkalis (K₂0 + Na₂0) do not exceed 1.5 wt.%.
A detailed microscopic analysis of the ores revealed that initially a compact magnetite/quartzite layer, detrital in character (the magnetite occasionally showing chromite cores), was deposited by entrapment in near shore lagoons where rivers debouched, rather than in the open sea . This stage was followed by oscillating and transgressive shore lines which gave rise to breaks in sedimentation in combined river delta and shallow water marine environment where detrital material and fine iron oxide and clay suspensions were deposited in fluctuating environments. These events gave rise to layers of both magnetite (martite) and specularite intergrown with quartz, silicates and phosphates. Textural and mineralogical studies show that the deposits consist of ferruginous clastic sediments and are not chemically deposited cherts. Field, geological and palaeontological evidence also supports a detrital origin, the facies being typical of zones rich in oxygen and close to the feeding continent (d’Orey, 1999).
Fig. 1. a) Ordovician outcrops of Portugal; b) Simplified geological map of the Moncorvo synclinorium region (adapted from Moreira et al., 2010); c) Geological map of the iron-ore deposits of Cabeço de Mua, Carvalhosa e Reboredo (After Teixeira et al., 2015). Note: Depósitos de vertente =Talus.
Refs:
COM(2017) 490 final. COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS on the 2017 list of Critical Raw Materials for the EU.
D’Orey, F.L.C., 1999. The detrital origin of the Moncorvo Ironstones. Ciências da Terra (UNL), V13, pp. 131-140.
Teixeira, R., Urbano, E.E.M.C., Gomes, M.H., Meireles, C.A.P., Corfu, F., Santos, J.F., Azevedo, M.R. and Sá, A.A., 2015. Interbedded quartz-muscovite layers in the ferriferous quartzites of the Lower Ordovician deposits of Moncorvo synclinorium (NE Portugal): an example of volcanogenic metasedimentary deposits? Comunicações Geológicas 102(Especial I):31-39
Daniel de Oliveira, FRAME Project Coordinator (23/07/2019)

Updated version of the Cobalt – Lithium and
Graphite deposit map
19 July 2019

We are pleased to have received data from all FRAME partners and Eurogeosurvey members, that have deposits of these types. We can now see something that would be more closed to the final product.

There are however some inconsistences and errors in the raw data that will be addressed. The genetic type of quite a lot of deposits are listed as unclassified. This must be improved if there should be possible to do any kind of mineral prospectively mapping (mpm) with the data.

The map is free to use for anyone in their own products if proper reference is given. We will however not distribute the complete raw data set to anyone outside FRAME at this stage.

The WP 5 leads thanks everybody that has contributed with data to this task, and hope for a continued successful cooperation.

(Click image to enlarge).

Janja Knežević (NGU), Håvard Gautneb (NGU), Eric Gloaguen (BRGM) and Tuomo Törmänen (GTK)

Lithium rush as highlighted by Exploration permits
throughout Europe
15 July 2019

In the framework of the FRAME project, in addition to Europe-scale data on Li-Co-Graphite deposits and occurrences already collected, official published data on exploration permits for lithium granted by governments have been collected by the workpackage WP5 - European Critical Elements. Gathering of these data allow the drawing of a new and original maps for lithium exploration throughout Europe. This map highlights a clear lithium rush with a minimum of 217 valid exploration licences for lithium! At the European scale, these data show a relatively well-distributed exploration activity from North to South of Europe, which is an interesting element in a close supply perspective between the sources of primary Lithium resources and processing/consumption centers.

(Click image to enlarge).

In detail, clusters of exploration permits appear logically in regions where deposits are already known: 83 licences in SW Finland (Länttä) and 28 in Sweden, 28 in Ireland (Leinster), German (11) - Czech Republic (8) boundary (Erzgebirge), North Portugal (23) - NW Spain (10) (Galicia), Serbia (12, Jadar). Conversely, several potential zones are still poorly covered by exploration permits, namely Austria (southern part) and France (French Massif Central, Armorican massif). Metallogenical and prospectivity maps that will be provided by the FRAME project will probably highlight new prospective zones for Li-Co-Graphite mineralisations.

Eric Gloaguen (BRGM), Janja Knežević (NGU), Håvard Gautneb (NGU)
and Tuomo Törmänen (GTK) – (WP5).

Phosphate deposits and sustainability
10 July 2019

There is a real concern about how to foster new mining activities in Europe in order to ensure a sustainable supply of raw materials from European sources. An issue that is frequently raised relates to the sustainability of mines, regarding different aspects as societal impacts, environmental issues, and preservation of the landscapes.

One of the ways to contribute to sustainable mining is surely to consider and valorize all the commodities – i.e., the main resource of the deposit and economically interesting by-products - that are present in the deposit.

Phosphate deposits constitute a good example of how this question can be tackled. First, phosphate rocks are listed as Critical Raw Materials (CRM) by the EC since 2014. Phosphate – under the form of apatite - is mainly used to produce fertilizers (82% of the production). It is consequently needed to satisfy the growing demand for food related to the growth of the world population.

Europe is a net importer of phosphates, as it is for other by-products that can be potentially recovered from phosphate mineralizations, namely the Rare Earth Elements, Fluorspar and Vanadium.

Previous

Next

Left image – Apatites in an Archean carbonatite – Siilinjarvi deposit (Finland). Right image – Abandoned phosphate underground exploitation (Cretaceous phosphorites) – La Malogne (Belgium).
(Click images to enlarge).

Read more...

The recovery of these elements, which are also listed as CRM, is quite easy and can be achieved during the processing of phosphate. In addition, it causes less damages to the environment compared to extraction from more conventional deposits where these raw materials are usually found. This practically means that opening a new phosphate exploitation in Europe would help to ensure a supply in a few CRM through a combined and rational exploitation of these resources, with few processing adaptations, and limited impacts on the environment. This is clearly in agreement with the concept of sustainable mining. Of course, this requires a lot of preliminary works to investigate the question of the abundance of all these commodities in the deposits, which vary largely from one mineralization type to the other (phosphorite formed in a sedimentary context vs. igneous type, for instance). FRAME (via its WP4 “Critical Raw Materials in phosphate deposits and associated black shales”) contributes actively to this task, through the assessment of economic potential of igneous and sedimentary phosphate deposits in Europe, especially regarding CRM.

Pockets enriched in phosphates in Pietra Leccese (Tertiary) – Salento Peninsula (Italy).

Sophie Decrée (WP4 Leader, RBINS)

References:

EC (2015a). Report on Critical Raw Materials for the EU. Report of the Ad hoc Working Group on defining critical raw materials. Ref. Ares(2015)1819503 – 29/04/2015

EC (2015b). Report on Critical Raw Materials for the EU. Critical Raw Materials Profiles. Ref. Ares(2015)3396873 – 14/08/2015

Emsbo, P., McLaughlin, P. I., Breit, G. N., du Bray, E. A., & Koenig, A. E. (2015). Rare earth elements in sedimentary phosphate deposits: solution to the global REE crisis? Gondwana Research, 27(2), 776-785.

FRAME coordination and WP leaders meet in Trondheim, Norway, to discuss the project advances, achievements and problems
14 May 2019

On the 13th May 2019, the Raw Materials group of GeoERA met in the offices of the Norwegian Geological Service (NGU) in Trondheim. This meeting was coupled with a B2B meeting of the Mineral Resources Expert Group taking place the following day.

The meeting was attended by the Project Coordinators of MINDeSEA (Seabed Mineral Deposits in European Seas: Metallogeny and Geological Potential for Strategic and Critical Raw Materials; Francisco Javier González), EuroLithos (European Ornamental stone resources; Tom Heldal), Mintell4EU (Mineral Intelligence for Europe; Jørgen Tulstrup – joined via Webex) and FRAME (Forecasting and Assessing Europe’s Strategic Raw Materials needs; Daniel de Oliveira).

All of FRAME’s WP leads were present or represented and various aspects of the project were discussed. Achievements, deliverable changes and submissions, problems, future work and strategies but most of all the synergies with the other projects were the main topics of discussion for the day. The day ended with a very interesting walking tour of Nidaros Cathedral led by Tom Heldal of NGU and EuroLithos.

Previous

Next

(Click image to enlarge)

Bottom row (L-R): Giorgia Stasi (RBINS, in rep. of WP4 Lead Sophie Decrée), Daniel de Oliveira (LNEG, FRAME project coordinator), Monica Serra (ISPRA), Lídia Quental (LNEG, WP8 Lead).

Back Rows (L-R): Antje Wittenberg (BGR, GeoERA Raw Materials Theme Coordinator), Maria João Ferreira (LNEG, WP2 Lead), Håvard Gautneb (NGU, WP5 Co lead), Henrike Sievers (BGR, WP7 Lead), Slavko Solar (EuroGeoSurveys Secretary General), Tuomo Tourmanen (NGU, WP5 Co lead), Helge Reginuissen (SGU, WP6 Lead), Stanislaw Mikulski (PGI).

Lithium outlook 2019
7 May 2019

Over the last year, electric vehicles (EVs) have made significant progress. Looking ahead, increasing consumer choice with more EV models.

EV penetration in developed economies is mixed. Namely, the UK and central European countries have found it difficult to find the right recipe for EV adoption. In Germany, EV market share has increased by around 1.5% in the space of the last four years. At this pace, for EVs to be a significant player in the total vehicle fleet will take a considerable amount of time.

Nordic countries are leading the way. Sweden, Finland, and Iceland are showing definite signs of progress. In particular, Norway has over 30 percent of their vehicle fleet, and every second new vehicle being electric. Their success is a result of a pro-active EV policy agenda. The conversation of EVs began in the 1990s, where EVs were exempt from import taxes. Significantly, in 2001 Norway decided to remove all of the 25 percent purchase tax from new EVs. Since then, the country has developed a comprehensive EV policy package. Similarly, China has emerged as a global leader in a relatively short space of time. There are 3 million EVs on the road today, of which around 2 million reside in China. Annual global EV sales are forecast to hit 24.4 billion by 2030.

Read more...

All these EVs mean that the demand for lithium; used in the manufacture of Li-ion batteries, is forecast to triple by 2025, as demand for lithium carbonate and hydroxide continues to increase. So what, according to experts, is in store on the lithium front for 2019? After an impressive rally spanning several years, the price of lithium came under pressure in 2018. Lithium prices reached an all-time high in January 2018 before falling almost 50% by summer, as a surplus in global metal supplies generally soured the market. Increasing market prices over the past several years have led lithium producers around the world to ramp up output. This caused the market to end up with a surplus of lithium supplies in 2018 — particularly in China, the world’s largest consumer — and depressed prices. While we can most likely expect the surplus in global lithium supplies to continue putting downward pressure on prices in the short term, long-term demand is expected shore up the market. According to global market experts, there are no expectations of weakening demand in 2019 or over the longer term. This is particularly good news for FRAME because during the next two years of research into this, and the other Energy Critical Raw Materials, we foresee not only the inventorying but also new sources of this very important metal.

Daniel de Oliveira (Project Coordinator)

Sources: https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/battery-metals-investing/lithium-investing/lithium-market-update/
https://www.energyandcapital.com/report/lithium-investment-outlook-2019/5012
https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/battery-metals-investing/lithium-investing/lithium-outlook/
https://www.fleetcarma.com/electric-vehicle-outlook-2019/

(Photo: Daniel Oliveira).

Mining makes holding the world in your hands possible
13 Mar 2019

The conventional definition of “Mining” is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef or placer deposit. Mining is mostly associated with having a negative impact on everyday life and there are several less favourable points of view on the practice, one of which is nimbyism. NIMBY (an acronym for the phrase “Not In My Back Yard”), or Nimby, is a characterisation of opposition by residents to a proposed development in their local area. It often carries the connotation that such residents are against the development because it is close to them, and that they would tolerate or support it if it were built farther away.

Previous

Next

Source: Australian Minerals Council. (Click image to enlarge)

However, despite these negative points of view, mining takes place to better our lives and make living comfortable. We are evermore mineral-dependents whether we like it or not. One such

Read more...

example is our total dependency on the smartphone. How many of you have actually thought about the number of different elements essential to making the phone a working reality?
The same situation occurs with other goods and services as the Australian Minerals Council has so successfully exemplified pictorially.
Project FRAME understands this urgent necessity for the different minerals needed to supply manufacturers with these elements in Europe and is undertaking research into critical and strategic mineral resources.

Most of the prevailing trends in industry nowadays have one common denominator
7 Mar 2019

Most of the prevailing trends in industry nowadays have one common denominator: going green. The increasing awareness about saving the planet from various environmental threats has caused even the largest industries to take notice and take a stand so they can contribute to the initiative rather than making matters worse.

Previous

Next

Photos: Daniel Oliveira. (Click image to enlarge)

In recent decades, the automotive industry was heavily criticised for being one of the primary contributors to environmental degradation, particularly in air pollution. We have been seeing efforts from the automobile manufacturers in trying to address this issue, and one of their moves is to produce more environment-friendly vehicles. Electric cars are seen to be one of the best solutions for decarbonising the economy, and this spurred the introduction of electric mobility – or e-mobility – technologies.

Read more...

Based on the current battery chemistry, FRAME has a dedicated work package (WP5) targeting the European sourcing of the raw materials necessary to manufacture the much needed batteries for decarbonising the economy and make e-mobility a reality.
The FRAME component of the Energy Critical Elements (ECE) produced a map of the ECE, which was delivered to the Commission late last year and an updated version of the same map earlier this year. The map was updated in February with additional countries’ data to produce the most complete picture of the European distribution of Li, Co and graphite (C). A version of this map was exhibited in the EU Commission stand at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC; March 3 – 6, 2019) in Toronto. FRAME congratulates itself on this achievement.
Daniel de Oliveira (Project Coordinator)

Conflict minerals and the Nobel peace prize
14 DEC 2018

The Nobel peace prize laureate for 2018 Dr. Denis Mukwege accused the electrical car industry and its need for raw materials to be the cause for conflicts in his home country, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), during a press conference related to the peace price award ceremony in Oslo on the 10th of November this year. The main aim of the FRAME project is to find European resources for many of these conflict related raw materials.

Denis Mukwege during the Nobel peace prize ceremony in Oslo 2018. (Photo. The Denis Mukwege foundation).

The conflicts in the DRC, related to the minerals industry, is well known for many decades. The global supply of the critical minerals is dominated by a relatively small number of countries. The Democratic Republic of Congo is for instance an important supplier of cobalt and tantalum.

Map of the critical minerals production in the world.

Read more...

All countries producing nickel do have potential to also produce cobalt, as these two metals overwhelmingly occur in same ore minerals. Globally significant cobalt refining has been done in Finland for decades. During years 1997−2003, Finland was the largest cobalt refiner in the world.
One of the FRAME projects objectives is to respond to Europe’s need for many of these raw materials and has several work packages where the main goal is to find additional sourcing within Europe. In the past, mines in Europe were the dominant producers in the world for many of today’s conflict minerals. For instance, in the period 1800-1850; 80% of the worlds cobalt and 75% of the worlds nickel production had a European source. The geological potential is obviously still there and a pan European overview of the location and potential of the different resources is needed.
Work package 3 in the FRAME project has its main aim to make a map of Europe’s critical minerals: an up to date overview their occurrences in Europe is essential for EU’s raw materials supply in case of future geopolitical issues.
Work package 5 will make a map and an overview of the most essential raw materials for batteries namely cobalt, lithium and graphite. These materials are already in production in Europe and the project is working to compile data from the European countries to produce a complete map.

European produced cobalt metal (left) and nickel ore from a closed nickel mine in Europe. (Photo NGU).

Geologist Janja Knežević (NGU) is working to compile a map of the energy critical elements of Europe (photo NGU).

Work package 6 aims for an overview of the potential for niobium and tantalum in Europe. Concentrates of niobium and tantalum minerals are produced only in a limited amount in Europe today. Niobium and tantalum are essential in many high-tech applications. European, and thus a conflict free sourcing, for these elements is very much wanted.

Tantalite crystal from Europe (photo NGU).

FRAME is present at the Raw Materials Week in Brussels
20 OCT 2018

Daniel Oliveira (LNEG) project coordinator of FRAME.

Klemen Teran (Geological Survey of Slovenia) next to the FRAME poster.

FRAME @ the EuroGeoSurveys Directors’ Workshop, Bratislava

FRAME Project was represented at the 45th EuroGeoSurveys Directors‘ Workshop that took place in Bratislava on the 17 October 2018. The project generated much interest amongst the representatives in attendance because it deals with the next set of data that the European Commission needs because it handles aspects of the Circular Economy, the Critical Raw Materials and the Battery Initiative.

Progress Report of FRAME WP5 Energy Critical Elements

By Håvard Gautneb (NGU, Norway), Eric Gloaguen (BRGM, France) and Tuomo Törmänen (GTK, Finland)

The main application of natural graphite today is for refractories in the manufacture of steel and other metals. However, it is believed that the consumption for batteries will grow significantly over the coming years with increased electrification in the transport sector. Today natural graphite is produced in Norway, Austria and Ukraine, with Norway as the largest European supplier to the EU. In addition to Norway, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden and Finland are known to have potential for natural graphite.
The main application of Lithium today is for rechargeable batteries. Despite numerous European lithium ore deposits, used for ceramic industry needs, all batteries are made of non-European lithium.
In Europe, lithium resources occur in several forms, including hard rock hosted and geothermal brines. Portugal, Spain, Austria, Finland, France, (Fig. 1) Czech Republic, Germany and Ireland among others, have high potential for Li-rich pegmatites and granites.
Unknown/unconventional Li deposit types have not been considered, and a review of European Li ore deposit types & models is needed to improve mining, exploration, and ore targeting.
In the global perspective, cobalt is typically produced as byproduct of nickel production; the only significant exception to this rule is the deposits in the southernmost Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where cobalt is predominantly associated with copper mineralizations. Finland is currently the only EU country producing cobalt from its mines. In the entire Europe, also Russia has mine production of cobalt, from the Pechenga nickel mines.

Fig. 1 Chèdeville Lepidolite-petalite subtype LCT pegmatite (France). Aplites showing unidirectional solidification textures to the top, made of layers of fine-grained purple lepidolite and quartz alternating with layers of white coarse albite crystals. Avoid mass of lepidolite+quartz are also present on left top (hammer for scale). © E. Gloaguen – BRGM

Fig. 2 Lepidolite from the Gonçalo region in
northern Portugal.

Read more...

All countries producing nickel do have potential to also produce cobalt, as these two metals overwhelmingly occur in same ore minerals. Globally significant cobalt refining has been done in Finland for decades. During years 1997−2003, Finland was the largest cobalt refiner in the world.
The work package 5 consists of the following partners: LNEG; BRGM, CGS, SGU, GSI, GTK, NGU GEOinform-GIU, IGR and GeoZS and they started by doing a first screening of occurrences in their respective countries. Per date (16.10.18) all partners except IGMEsp have submitted data.
The data is grouped according to country and commodity as shown in the table 1.

Table 1 – Occurrences of cobalt, graphite and lithium FRAME participating countries.

On a map over Europe the deposits are distributed as shown in Fig. 3
Fig. 3 distribution of occurrences of Co, Li and graphite in FRAME WP5 countries, status per 16.10.
Future work and challenges
Future work will have two major challenges:
Only a minority of the EU35 countries are partners in this project a complete overview of the energy critical elements in Europe is not possible without data a as large part of EU 35 countries as possible.
It will be important to integrate the data that has been collected in to a common information platform for GeoEra.
Apart from this, our start with WP5 seems promising and we hope that all partner will contribute to the project’s success. The WP leads look forward to co-operate with everybody both internal and external people and institutions.

FRAME project in September’s issue of magazine “Mineral”

By Klemen Teran, Geological Survey of Slovenia

Aims and activities of FRAME project were presented to Slovenian professional public in September’s issue of magazine “Mineral”. Article titled “Geological Service for Europe (GeoERA)” describes role and goals of GeoERA financial mechanism with focus on projects from the Raw Materials theme where Geological Survey of Slovenia (GeoZS) participates as a partner. Critical raw materials are not important only on European but also on national scale. Despite several important historical mining sites in Slovenia, there is not much data about trace elements which accompanying main ore minerals, which can be today of economic importance. FRAME addresses re-evaluation of historical mining sites as well as consistent collection of data dispersed in several databases or reports. This will contribute to the better knowledge about potential of specific ore deposits or will outline regions with the highest potential for mineral exploration. Results of FRAME project can form solid professional foundation for future re-development of metal mining activities in Slovenia.
Article (in Slovenian language) is accessible on:
https://www.mineral-revija.si/1875/Geoloska-sluzba-za-Evropo-(GeoERA)?cctest&src=XNASLZAD

Photogallery

Previous

Next

MREG Lousal Field Trip 30/09/2021
(Click image to enlarge)

Previous

Next

MREG Meeting 29/09/2021
(Click image to enlarge)

Previous

Next

GeoERA Meeting 28/09/2021
(Click image to enlarge)

Previous

Next

FRAME at Raw Materials Week 2019, Brussels, 18-22 November 2019
(Click image to enlarge)

Previous

Next

FRAME Kick-Off meeting, Brussels 3-5 July 2017
(Click image to enlarge)

Members Area

A project folder for FRAME has been created on the GeoERA Intranet for sharing files.

Click HERE

(Please use the login credentials sent by email)

For more information please contact us:

Monday - Friday
9h00 > 12h30 - 14h00 > 17h30

Phone: (+351) 210 924 630
Email: frame@lneg.pt

LNEG - Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia
Estrada da Portela, Bairro do Zambujal
Apartado 7586 – Alfragide
2610-999 Amadora
PORTUGAL

© 2022 GeoERA – FRAME | Accessibility

Skip to content

Open toolbar

Accessibility Tools

Increase Text

Decrease Text

Grayscale

High Contrast

Negative Contrast

Light Background

Links Underline

Readable Font

Reset

FRAME

Objectives

Budget and participants

Project Philosophy

Work Packages

Partners

(Project Coordinator)

News/Events

Project results24 NOVEMBER 2022

24 NOVEMBER 2022

FRAME and the GeoERA RM projects in the EU Commission20 MAY 2022

20 MAY 2022

GeoERA Raw Materials Monograph ‒ the past and the future26 APRIL 2022

26 APRIL 2022

GeoERA RM-MREG Meeting, LNEG 28-30 Sept.202128 SEPTEMBER 2021

28 SEPTEMBER 2021

FRAME project travels to Angola10 MARCH 2021

10 MARCH 2021

FRAME in the Advances in Critical Mineral Research28 january 2021

28 january 2021

Raw Materials Week 20206 november 2020

6 november 2020

14 october 2020

13 october 2020

Launch of the European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA)25 september 2020 ERMA will be launched on 29 September via live stream through the European Commission streaming services. See the link here. See ERMA Agenda.

25 september 2020

3 september 2020

EU sounds alarm on critical raw materials shortages31 august 2020 Read full article here.

31 august 2020

GBA joins FRAME25 June 2020 FRAME welcomes the Geological Survey of Austria (GBA) as a formal partner in FRAME. GBA will be contributing significantly to the data needs in WP3 and WP5. Welcome aboard!

25 June 2020

3 June 2020

15 May 2020

30 April 2020

Subscribe our Newsletter

FRAME Newsletters

Issue 9 | October 2021

Issue 8 | June 2021

Issue 7 | October 2020

Issue 6 | June 2020

Issue 5 | February 2020

Issue 4 | October 2019

Issue 3 | June 2019

Issue 2 | February 2019

Issue 1 | October 2018

Deliverables

FRAME WP1 - deliverable 1.1

FRAME WP1 - deliverable 1.2

FRAME WP2 - deliverable 2.1

FRAME WP2 - deliverable 2.2

FRAME WP2 - deliverable 2.3

FRAME WP2 - deliverable 2.5

FRAME WP4 - deliverable 4.1

FRAME WP4 - deliverable 4.2

FRAME WP4 - deliverable 4.3

FRAME WP4 - deliverable 4.4

FRAME WP4 - deliverable 4.5

Other NEWS

23 April 2020

Brussels, 18-22 November 2019

6 November 2019

1 October 2019

18 September 2019

23 July 2019

19 July 2019

15 July 2019

10 July 2019

14 May 2019

7 May 2019

13 Mar 2019

7 Mar 2019

14 DEC 2018

FRAME is present at the Raw Materials Week in Brussels20 OCT 2018

20 OCT 2018

FRAME @ the EuroGeoSurveys Directors’ Workshop, Bratislava

Progress Report of FRAME WP5 Energy Critical Elements

FRAME project in September’s issue of magazine “Mineral”

Photogallery

Members Area

Project results
24 NOVEMBER 2022

FRAME and the GeoERA RM projects in the EU Commission
20 MAY 2022

GeoERA Raw Materials Monograph ‒ the past and the future
26 APRIL 2022

GeoERA RM-MREG Meeting, LNEG 28-30 Sept.2021
28 SEPTEMBER 2021

FRAME project travels to Angola
10 MARCH 2021

FRAME in the Advances in Critical Mineral Research
28 january 2021

Raw Materials Week 2020
6 november 2020

Launch of the European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA)
25 september 2020

ERMA will be launched on 29 September via live stream through the European Commission streaming services.

See the link here.

See ERMA Agenda.

EU sounds alarm on critical raw materials shortages
31 august 2020

Read full article here.

GBA joins FRAME
25 June 2020

FRAME welcomes the Geological Survey of Austria (GBA) as a formal partner in FRAME.
GBA will be contributing significantly to the data needs in WP3 and WP5.

Welcome aboard!

FRAME is present at the Raw Materials Week in Brussels
20 OCT 2018