The location of (potential) European mineral resources is of increasing interest to policy makers and stakeholders as the need for raw materials for the green transitions grows and Europe seeks less dependency on third countries supplying these materials. The interest covers both specific metals and elements for example batteries, but also aggregates for energy islands at sea as well as natural ornamental stones for sustainable construction and building projects.

Cooperation between more than 30 geological survey organizations as well as other data providers across Europe in the GeoERA RM project MINTELL4EU has succeeded in collection new and updating already existing data on raw materials.

The electronic Minerals Yearbook, established under the Minerals4EU project, has been updated based on aggregated data per country collected from a wide range of data holders in Europe:

  • Production per country per commodity (2014-2019), now covering the period 2004-2019
  • Trade (import and export) per country per commodity (2014-2018), now covering the period 2004-2018
  • Resources per country per commodity as of 2019
  • Reserves per country per commodity as of 2019
  • Exploration data per country with 2019 as reference year

Data on mineral occurrences as well as existing and closed mines (and open quarries), known as the Minerals Inventory, has been updated and geographically expanded by adding seven new countries, some of these (West Balkan area) in cooperation with the RESEERVE project.

The database M4EU established under Minerals4EU, has been updated to MIN4EU and now covers both the electronic Minerals Yearbook and the Minerals Inventory. In addition, the database structure has been updated and code lists have been added, updated and expanded to increase the level of harmonization, ensure that the data is INSPIRE-compliant. The data is downloadable and free to use according to the license rules described in the metadata.

A map of tourist mines across Europe where raw materials were previously extracted has also been created, allowing interested citizens to get information before planning a trip to these historic mines.

A pilot study where the UNFC system was tested on different commodities at local, regional or national scales was also performed. Two reports describing the test cases as well as lessons learned, and recommendations based on the test cases together with a map showing the location of the test cases was also developed.

Finally, the data collected are shared with boththe Raw Materials Information system (RMIS) of Joint Research Centre Ispra, and sharing with EPOS is planned for the future.

See a folder about the project here.

Project facts:

Project duration: 1 July 2018 – 31 October 2021.
Project Lead: Lisbeth Flindt Jørgensen, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS).
Project page on GeoERA website: https://geoera.eu/projects/mintell4eu7/

GIS viewer for Mintell4EU results

Through this viewer the results of the Mintell4EU project are accessible.

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