ARTeMIS_2 - A European training-through-research program for exploration geologists

The global demand for base and strategic metals (e.g. Cu, Zn, Co) as well as for high-technology elements (e.g., In, Te, Se, Sb) increases in response to the green and digital transitions. In order to secure metal supply for the European industry the EU Commission designed the Critical Raw Materials Act with the goal of achieving at least 10% of the EU’s annual metal consumption by extraction within the community. This goal requires well-trained exploration geologists who have experience in working on potential resources within the EU. The ERASMUS+ ARTeMIS (Action for Research and Teaching Mineral exploration Inclusive School) program is a training-through-research project in mineral exploration at the MSc level. The program brings together Master students from six European partner universities (University of Lorraine, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, NKUA Athens, Univ. of Bratislava, and ELTE Budapest). Within the program lecturers and students learn the basic theory and safe use of portable spectroscopic tools (pXRF, pLIBS, pVNIR-SWIR and pRAMAN) as well as the treatment of data. Additionally, the ARTeMIS program offers classroom instruction in exploration planning, use of GIS data, and mineral resource geochemistry related to porphyry-epithermal metal deposits in the Tethyan Metallogenic Belt. The course is supplemented by a two-week field school in NE Greece (Central Macedonia and Thrace regions) dedicated to the application of portable spectroscopic tools in demanding field work environments. The field training is combined with mapping of porphyry Cu-Mo-Au and epithermal mineralisations and their alteration zones, which are exploration targets for various base, critical and precious metals in Europe.