Most of the world-class ore discoveries have been made close to the surface. Many of these large-tonnage deposits are mined out or are largely decreasing in production. Mineral exploration at depth is becoming one of the fundamental challenges for the exploration industry in this century. The sharp increase in demand for commodities driven by a growing population and technology-based society is coupled with the decrease in world-class ore deposit discoveries in the last three decades. This is setting the stage for an unprecedented scenario, that is, ensuring that the market supply for critical metals (Ni, Co, Au, PGE, etc.) is satisfied. This situation is becoming the driving force for a restructuring of mineral exploration paradigms. New technologies and methodologies are being developed; and, as a consequence, regions that were considered to be unfavourable for ore deposit exploration are now being reconsidered.

In this session, we invite research contributions show case or assist elucidating a better understanding of novel and innovative approaches to the search of mineral deposits for the future in new environments (e.g., at depth, bottom of the oceans, frontier regions, regolith-dominated terrains…), spanning from economic, environmental and technical challenges to greenfields or browndfields technologies and methodologies.