Critical raw materials are fundamental to feeding the EU industrial value chains and strategic sectors and the green energy transition. SEMACRET project, led by the University of Oulu Finland, promoted sustainable exploration for green transition critical raw materials in the EU, securing the continued supply for its industries.
At the project's inception, the supply of primary critical raw materials was less than 3% for many important commodities, leaving the EU in a vulnerable position, depending mostly on imports from third countries. The EU aims to ensure the responsible sourcing of these raw materials and boost the internal production of critical raw materials to secure its autonomy.
Critical raw materials are hosted in different mineral systems. The orthomagmatic mineral systems, the research target in this project, host important green (critical) raw materials including Nickel (Ni), Copper (Cu), Cobalt (Co), Vanadium (V), Titanium (Ti), Chromium (Cr), and platinum-group metals (PGM), in mantle-derived magmas that reach the continental crust.
The aim was to promote sustainable exploration for green transition critical raw materials in the EU. Research results were obtained. The outputs of the project are socially and environmentally sustainable means of exploration of orthomagmatic critical raw materials. The ore deposit model on how the mineral deposits are formed are refined which can guide efficient exploration.
“Regional prospectivity modelling are optimized for different sub-deposit types using new predictors. Advanced geophysical imaging inversion algorithms have been developed including 3D electromagnetic inversion (EM), joint inversion of EM and induced polarization (IP), advanced modelling of passive seismic targeting at shallow depth (a few kilometers), and inversion algorithm of Full Tensor Magnetic Geometry (FTMG). A QGUIS-Plagin (EEMstudio) has been developed as an all-in-one platform focusing on professional data processing, inversion and visualization of electrical and electromagnetic data, supporting hybrid 1D-3D inversion. Surficial geochemical exploration methods such as plant and upper soil geochemistry have been developed. In addition, machine learning based 3D prospectivity modelling and resource modelling optimization have been conducted”, summarized professor Shenghong Yang from the Oulu Mining School, University of Oulu Finland.
The project also developed means to promote social awareness of (critical) raw materials and their responsible sourcing, through social community events, interviews, surveys and social media analysis in four different countries.
“The results show that whether there is environmental impact is the key concern of public, and fairness (balance of impacts and benefits), transparency and community participation in decision-making, are important aspects to promote social acceptance of exploration and mining. In addition, the mineral exploration and production potential of relevant raw materials were investigated and harmonized with UNFC (United Nations Framework Classification for Resources) and UNRMS (United Nations Resource Management Systems)”, Yang explains.
The SEMACRET project is coordinated by Oulu Mining School in the University of Oulu, and the consortium is composed of 16 parties from 12 different countries including EU, South Africa, and UK. The EU and UKRI invest 6.67 M and 0.83 M Euro respectively, with a total budget of 7.5 M euros for the project.
Research was conducted at five reference sites in Finland, Portugal, Poland and the Czech Republic representing different geological, social and environmental conditions. Project team gathered specialists from the academia and industry, representing a wide range of research fields, such as geology, geophysics, geochemistry, mathematical modelling, resource modelling, artificial intelligence, geoinformatics and social sciences. It was truly multidisciplinary research project.
SEMACRET Consortium:
Oulun yliopisto (Finland)
Cardiff University (UK)
Instituto Dom Luiz (Portugal)
Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal)
Ceska Geologicka Sluzba (Czech Republic)
Panstwowy Instytut Geologiczny (Poland)
Center National De La Recherche Scientifique (France)
Technische Universitaet Wien (Austria)
Helmholtz–Zentrum Dresden–Rossendorf (Germany)
Supracon Aktiengesellschaft (Germany)
Aarhus Geophysics APS (Denmark)
Itä-Suomen Yliopisto (Finland)
Universita Degli Studi Di Milano (Italy)
Gaia Exploration (Spain)
Xcalibur (Spain)
Geopool (Finland)
Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine (UK)
University of the Free State (South Africa)
Magnus Minerals Oy (Finland)