Conference Agenda

Greenland is an exceptional rock archive of geodynamic. Its Precambrian shield, Proterozoic orogens, and Cenozoic rift-related magmatism have generated a variety of mineralizations, including world class deposits of Sr, Zr, Hf, Nb, Ta, the rare earth (REE) and platinum-group elements (PGE). The Gardar Province a 1.35 to 1.14Ga old intracontinental extensional alkaline magmatic province, is the best example with its major rare metal mineralizations. These are primarily associated with highly evolved silica-undersaturated magmas (nepheline syenites and agpaitic complexes). The Ilímaussaq igneous complex and the Motzfeldt center are natural laboratories for understanding the emplacement of REE deposits. The carbonatites hold an additional potential to cast light on REE deposit petrogenesis. In contrast to these worldwide known Greenlandic REE deposits, East Greenland is hosting among others the world-class strontium deposit of Karstryggen, the Malmbjerg molybdenum deposit and the petrological world heritage Skaergaard layered intrusion including its PGE. Recent assessments indicate that Greenland hosts occurrences of most globally critical raw materials. However, Greenland remains sparsely mapped, implying that additional deposits are likely to be discovered with improved exploration coverage and resolution. Even the ice-free regions of Greenland, with the above-described CRM deposits, remain sparsely explored. Our presentation will review the current state of knowledge on the CRM geology and further present new insights into ongoing swarm seismicity beneath Greenland. Ongoing seismicity is a paradox to the cratonic nature and intraplate position of Greenland. Finally, the presentation provides a brief overview of Greenland’s international economic law relations concerning mineral resources, trade, and investments.

Mine tailings represent an economic resource for the secondary recovery of raw materials. The low raw material prices during initial processing decades ago meant that extraction was only feasible to a certain extent; refined methods and significantly higher prices make tailings attractive as raw material repositories today which can be processed cost-effectively.

Over 10 billion tons of waste rock were deposited during the past 30 years, which still contain residual quantities of metals such as Copper, Nickel, Silver, and Gold that can be economically recovered. Other elements such as REE have come into focus. An assessment of raw material concentrations from these tailings is a prerequisite for utilizing these secondary deposits. Furthermore, many old tailings pose a threat from today's environmental protection perspective, as heavy metals can leach from them into the groundwater.

The IBERIA MPT probe combines CPT (Cone Penetration Testing) and X-ray fluorescence as push probe for soils. Besides the mineral content it also in-situ determines environmentally critical elements such as arsenic with regard to groundwater contamination or damage to flora and fauna. The probe is deployed in soils by pressing the XRF sensor-equipped CPT probe directly into the ground. During the movement a concentration log is acquired. This allows for rapid, cost-effective soil analysis with minimal environmental impact. Vertical resolutions of ~100 mm per point allows significantly more precise logs than sample based workflows allow.

Pilot projects demonstrate that this technology can successfully and cost-effectively model secondary deposits.

The European Critical Raw Materials Act has reinforced the need to identify, assess and mobilise domestic sources of strategic raw materials. While primary exploration remains essential, mine waste, tailings, waste dumps and post-mining residues represent an important but still underused source of information and potential secondary raw materials. However, before these materials can be evaluated as realistic CRM resources, a fundamental challenge must be addressed: relevant information is often fragmented, heterogeneous, difficult to access and not directly comparable across regions or countries.

The CRMsDataSpace project responds to this challenge by developing a European data-space approach for critical raw materials associated with closed extractive coal waste facilities and post-mining environments. The project aims to structure and connect diverse sources of information, including site inventories, historical documentation, geochemical and mineralogical data, Earth Observation datasets, environmental monitoring information and metadata describing data quality, ownership and reusability.

This contribution presents the conceptual framework and current progress of CRMsDataSpace, focusing on why such an infrastructure is needed to support CRM exploration, prioritisation and future valorisation pathways. Selected European case studies are used to illustrate challenges related to data availability, interoperability and stakeholder coordination.

Rather than presenting final recovery results, the contribution highlights the role of CRMsDataSpace in transforming dispersed mine waste information into structured, reusable and decision-relevant knowledge. By improving visibility, comparability and assessability of secondary CRM sources, the project supports future resource assessment and contributes to the implementation of European CRM strategies.

The Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) is an opportunity for geoscientists to promote suitable project in Europe and get involved in responsible mining. The need to secure the supply of raw materials in line with sustainability goals promotes exploration, innovation in methods and technologies, and encourages interdisciplinary collaboration. Optimizing the use of mineral resources under environmentally and socially responsible conditions requires a broad spectrum of geoscientific expertise. Our goal is to bring together the aspects already raised by the speakers during the session with the questions raised by the audience, as well as to discuss the importance of communication in all phases of exploration and project development. Thus, this session offers the audience and speakers a space to discuss experiences related to geological, technical, and societal challenges associated with, among other things, strategic projects, the National Exploration Programs (NEP), and the German research program (EGARoh).

We invite all speakers and the audience to engage in a lively dialogue.