NEWS
Published Maps of Critical Mineral Deposits in Europe
The Croatian Geological Survey is a longstanding member of the European Geological Surveys (Eurogeosurveys) and actively participates in collaborative projects. Currently, it is involved in the 5-year Geological Service for Europe (GSEU) project, initiated in October 2022.
The goal of the GSEU project is to support the European Green Deal, UN Sustainable Development Goals, and Horizon Europe Framework by developing the Geological Service for Europe. With a focus on the subsurface, the project aims to utilize resources for industrial development and decarbonization of the EU economy while carefully managing environmental preservation. It involves 48 partners from 35 countries, focusing on key areas such as mineral resources, geothermal energy, and groundwater. Project objectives include the development of the European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI) and the creation of shared services to support energy and climate transition. Additionally, emphasis is placed on innovation in conceptualization, organization, and information transfer regarding the subsurface to meet the needs of various stakeholders.
The project comprises 9 work packages, with Work Package 2 (WP2) dedicated to mineral resources - CRM-ICE-UNFC (Critical Raw Materials, International Center of, United Nations Framework Classification) led by BRGM (Geological Survey of France). Focused on mineral resources, its goal is to revise European resources of critical raw materials (CRM), including onshore and offshore deposits and "waste" resources from mining. The focus is on critical mineral raw materials crucial for the green transition.
In February 2024, within WP2, the map ˝Critical Raw Materials Hard Rock Deposits˝ of was released. It is based on the 2023 CRM list published by the European Commission. The map shows the onshore distribution of deposits of 31 mineral raw materials on a chronostratigraphic geological background. This highly detailed map, coordinated by Capucine Albert and Guillaume Bertrand from BRGM, authored by the GSEU Mineral Resources Team and the EuroGeoSurveys Mineral Resources Expert Group (MREG), brings together sources of data provided by the GSEU project as as well as the ProMine and MIN4EU projects. The map displays only very large, large, and medium-sized mineral deposits (Classes A, B, and C) due to its small scale. Although Croatia has critical mineral deposits, according to the map classification, they belong to small deposits and therefore are not shown. The map of critical raw materials of the Republic of Croaita according to EU standards for harmonized geological data is shown in a separated figure (figure 3).
The map ˝Critical Raw Materials Offshore Occurrences of Europe˝ has also been created, showing eight types of critical mineral resources in the seabed of Europe, also based on the 2023 CRM list published by the European Commission. This highly detailed map, coordinated by Egidio Marino and Francisco Javier González Sanz of from Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (IGME), authored by the GSEU Mineral Resources Team, the EuroGeoSurveys Mineral Resources (MREG) and Marine Geology (MGEG) Expert Groups, brings together sources of data provided by the GSEU project as as well as GeoERA, MINDeSEA, and EMODnet projects. On this map, with a scale of 1:50,000,000, deposits are shown as occurrences (size potentially medium to large, depending on the size of associated morphostructures such as seamounts, coasts, plateaus, abyssal plains).
This maps are a key deliverable for the project, and demonstrates the collaborative nature of the work being done in bringing together diverse data sources to create a picture of offshore deposits around Europe. Both maps are available at the following links:
Slika 1. Karta ležišta kritičnih mineralnih sirovina u Europi. Dostupna je u punoj rezoluciji na sljedećoj poveznici: Map of onshore CRM deposits in Europe
Slika 2. Karta pojava kritičnih mineralnih sirovina u podmorju Europe. Dostupna je u punoj rezoluciji na sljedećoj poveznici: Map of offshore CRM deposits in Europe
