Critical raw materials are fundamental to supply industrial value chains, strategic sectors and to support the rapidly increasing demand for metals associated with the energy transition. Mineral exploration usually relies on drilling geophysical and, to a lesser degree, geochemical anomalies to identify and delineate ore deposits. This approach results in significant environmental impact and thus high exploration costs. Increasing deposit discovery rates requires a continuous effort to improve our understanding of ore formation processes. Such understanding is fundamental to increase the efficiency of exploration methods and minimize their environmental and social impacts.
In this session we invite the submission of studies that provide advances in the study of mineral deposits of magmatic, hydrothermal or sedimentary origin, as well as application of mineral exploration techniques. We particularly welcome those studies that have employed holistic, knowledge-driven methods such as the Mineral System Approach and that envisage mineral deposits as the successful interplay between a source, a pathway and a sink for metals in difference geological and geodynamic contexts. We further welcome studies that provide advancements in tracing the footprints and fingerprints of mineral deposits, such as geochemical and geophysical methods that enable translating the source-pathway-sink into efficient exploration criteria, or their integration in prospectivity models.