DEXPLORE: Recognizing European potential for hosting deep land primary CRM by combining new mineral models and advanced exploration and visualization techniques

The new “environmental technologies,” such as electric vehicles, batteries, and wind turbines—essential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieve the EU goal to be climate-neutral by 2050 —will require over 400% more Critical and Strategic Raw Materials (CRM and SRM, respectively) by 2050 compared to today. However, EU’s domestic supply of primary CRM and SRM —including basic metals, industrial minerals, and aggregates—accounts for less than 3%. This creates a significant supply risk, as Europe depends on third countries for the green transition.

To achieve European resource security, actions must be taken to diversify supply from primary and secondary CRM and SRM sources and enhance resource independence, efficiency, and circularity, including sustainable product design. However, despite advances in exploration technology, the discovery rate of ore deposits continues to decline, while the supply from shallow deposits is nearing depletion. Under these circumstances, new ore models based on sophisticated deep-land exploration techniques, analysis, and interpretation, are becoming increasingly important.

DEXPLORE aims to reduce Europe’s reliance on non-EU countries for CRM and SRM by developing an advanced surface-to-subsurface exploration package including innovative techniques, such as geochemical and optical methods, mineral UAV-assisted detector, Earth Observation tools, and deep-land geophysics capable of exploring up to 600 meters deep.

With three pilot zones — fluorite mineralization at northern Spain, VSHMS deposits of the Iberian Pyrite Belt (Cu, Ni, Zn), and graphitic and sulfide-bearing gneisses of the N-E Estonian Precambrian basement (Cu, Ni, Zn, Pb, Mo)— DEXPLORE aims to develop updated ore models. This will be achieved through an advanced surface-to-subsurface exploration package and an extended reality (XR) platform that integrates geological, remote sensing, and geophysical data. The project seeks to enhance decision-making, increase public awareness of the critical role of CRMs in the green transition, and promote sustainable resource sourcing.

DEXPLORE brings together 13 partners—11 beneficiaries and 2 affiliated entities—from 4 European countries: Spain, Greece, Estonia, and Italy. Each partner contributes top-notch expertise in their field, playing a distinct role in the project, which reflects its multidisciplinary nature of the project.