1. SOURCES FOR EUROPEAN SUPPLY OF MINERALS Euro Mine Expo Conference 2010
Dr. Patrice Christmann
Head of the BRGM Mineral Resources Department
Tel.:
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2. Caveat
This presentation does not reflect any official position be it European or French.
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3. A LOOK INTO THE CURRENT EU SUPPLY SITUATION
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4. UE dependence on minerals and metals imports (2009) Data sources: USGS, BGS, BRGM, PGI, WMD
Antimony
100%
Vanadium
Beryllium
Phosphate
92%
Boron
Rhenium
90%
Cobalt
Nickel
86%
Molybdenum
Iron
83%
Niobium
Bauxite
80%
Platinum group
Zinc
Rare Earth
Tungsten
76%
Tantalum
Lead
Titanium
Copper
74%
Germanium
Chromium
53% 
The import dependency ranges from 53% for chromium, 74% for copper
all the way to 100% for metallic ores such as cobalt, tantalum and vanadium.
The trends of sharp upward movements in price and high dependency
pose competitiveness challenges to the manufacturing industry in general
and also raises longer term issues related to security of supply of raw materials.
Figures shown on a red background show metals of which China is the
1st global producer
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6. Chinese investments in the global mineral resources industry
(After Van der Wath, Bateman Beijing Axis, « China and Africa: A Global Natural Resources Alliance?,
presentation given at Indaba Mining 2010, Cape Town »
2004
Early 2009
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7. Current EU supply situation: the main driver
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8. Current EU supply situation: consequences
Loss of expertise, both in private and public sectors
Lack of perception/ understanding of the issues
Lack of investment in the development of the public geological knowledge base on the EU subsurface (with some exceptions)
Lack of support to the sustainable development of the mineral resources industry in the developing world
Losses of industrial jobs and competitiveness, damage to our economic basis, crisis in the EU
Transfer of environmental and social issues from the highly regulated EU sphere to countries who DO NOT have the material and human capacites to regulate the mineral resources industry
The recent vote of the EU Parliament for a cyanide ban in EU gold mining, without banning the imports of gold, is a typical case showing political misunderstanding of the issues
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9. Current EU supply situation: consequences
International competition for access to mineral resources will continue to grow as the world’s population inches towards the 9 billion mark
The EU as such is poorly prepared to face the challenge and its access to resources from outside its borders is far from being granted
China will do its best efforts to attract Western industry to China, offering access to resources … to gain access to Western technology, key to Chinese sustainable competitivity
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10. EUROPE’s MINERAL POTENTIAL
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11. EU GEOLOGICAL POTENTIAL: NOWADAYS
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12. KNOWING EU’s GEOLOGICAL POTENTIAL IS A KEY TO EU SECURITY AND ECO-EFFICIENT COMPETITIVENESS …
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13. Europe’s geological potential: general beliefs
General belief 1: Europe’s mineral’s industry belongs to the past, there is no more potential
General belief 2: If its important, the private sector will take care of it
General belief 3: production costs in the EU would be too high to make mining profitable
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14. Do we know the geological potential of Europe?
The location of deposits of economic interest (a very dynamic concept) is determined by the geological history of Europe,
For the time being, except for some areas with oil and gas, we only well know the near-surface geology of Europe and the related mineral deposits
There so far not even is a 2D public pan-EU Mineral Resources GIS, only heterogeneous information at national/ regional levels, some very difficult to identify and to access.
In many countries the public knowledge rests on old
data, techniques and concepts
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15. … WHILE EUROPE’s POTENTIAL FOR CRITICAL MINERALS AND DEEP-SEATED, HIDDEN, LARGE-SCALE MINERAL DEPOSITS IS ALREADY PROVEN
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16. The geological ON THE WAY TO THE FUTURE: THREE WORLD-CLASS
The foresudetic basin, Poland – 30.8 Mt
resource (31/12/07 data)
Las Cruces, Spain – 1.1 Mt Cu
In reserves (31/12/07 data)
mineralreservesresources/default.aspx
ON THE WAY TO THE
FUTURE:
THREE WORLD-CLASS
EU CONCEALED
DEPOSITS
Neves Corvo, Portugal – 1.7 Mt Cu, 3 Mt Zn,
50 kt Sn in resources +  1Mt Cu produced (12/1997 data)
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17. Do we know the geological potential of Europe?: Work in progress
OneGeology Europe ( will bring together a web-accessible, interoperable geological spatial dataset for the whole of Europe at 1:1 million scale based on existing data.
ProMine will deliver the first ever Pan-European GIS based database on EU known mineral occurrences, already in development within the framework of a BRGM research project and a 3-D model of four of its main metallogenic provinces
The two projects are co-funded by the European Commission.
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18. … THE EU CAN BE A VERY GOOD LOCATION FOR INVESTMENT IN MINERAL EXPLORATION AND MINING
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19. The nearby Aitik open-pit copper pit mine, one of the world’s lowest grade operations (0.27% Cu in the reserves). demonstrates that mining is possible and profitable in the EU, with a cash cost of 1.24 $/ lb Cu (market price: 3.12 $ on 15/05/2010) … thanks to technology and engineering
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21. EU geological potential: the EU can be a very attractive venue for mining
While as a whole Europe’s mineral potential remains MUCH underexplored, there are sharp contrasts about mineral resources development activities across Europe …
In 2007 about 160 €/ km2 were invested in mineral exploration in Sweden to be compared with about 125 €/ km2 invested in Australia or about 155 €/km2 in Canada.
Finland and Sweden are among the most attractive jurisdictions (Finland: 3rd, Sweden: 12th position) of the 2009/10 Survey of Mining Companies produced by the Fraser Institute, ranking 72 jurisdictions with an active mining industry (4 EU countries)
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22. -2009. Note: projects can be shelved or dormant
Number of mineral resources projects, at all stages of development, listed in the MineSearch database developed by the Metals Economics Group (period: 2005
Note: projects can be shelved or dormant
51 – 60 projects
41 – 50 projects
31 – 40 projects
21 – 30 projects
11 – 20 projects
10 and less projects
No data
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23. EU GEOLOGICAL POTENTIAL: THE FUTURE
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24. The geological map of the future: 3D probabilistic models based on geophysics,
borehole observations and geostatistics, depicting a wide range of subsurface
parameters (lithologies, mineralisation, energy and water resources, natural hazards …)
EarthVision / EvCell model courtesy Dynamic Graphics, Inc. ©.
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25. CONCLUSIONS
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26. The need for coordinated EU Commission and Member States actions
Develop a public EU minerals intelligence on a par with the USGS
Develop a public digital EU knowledge base on « Europe beneath our feet » down to 4 km, focused on Europe’s metallogenic province
Support the sustainable development of the mineral resources sector in developing countries with a grant-based, ring-fenced, development instrument of 100 M€/year over 10 years
Include geology and mineral resources as priority topics in the forthcoming 8th RTD framework programme, in support of the European Technology Platform on Sustainable Mineral Resources
Promote sustainable use of natural resources in primary and secondary education curricula
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27. Thank you for your attention!
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