Urban Mine Platform and European historical mining waste database aligned with Critical Raw Materials objectives

Historical and legacy mining waste deposits, such as tailings storage facilities and waste rocks, represent both a potential source of unrecovered critical and non-critical metals as well as a significant environmental challenge in Europe. The EU 2006 Extractive Waste Directive marked the first mandatory step for Member States to monitor mining waste, adopting a risk-based approach following environmental disasters in the 1990s.

In the 2010s, EU-funded projects like ProMine and ProSUM began mapping these deposits and developing a first pan-European database. National, federal and regional initiatives contributed to the multi-actor data collection and dissemination process. More recently, the EU-funded GeoERA programme and particularly the FRAME and MINTELL4EU projects further designed and established the MIN4EU database. This is now the reference pan-European resource, compiling information on mineral deposits and anthropogenic resources, including mining waste. However, until recently, updated datasets were not publicly accessible in a centralised and user-friendly format.

The FutuRaM project (Future Availability of Secondary Raw Materials – futuram.eu), in collaboration with GSEU (Geological Service for Europe – geologicalservice.eu) which associates thirty-seven geological surveys in Europe, aims to map and share data on the potential of critical raw materials in historical mining waste across the continent. Both projects have accelerated the collection and cataloguing of mining waste data. This effort is aligned with the Critical Raw Materials Act (Article 27), which requires EU Member States to establish a database of closed and abandoned extractive waste facilities, excluding sites where recoverable quantities of critical raw materials are unlikely. The database includes: (1) Location, area, and waste volume; (2) Operator information; (3) Quantities and concentrations of raw materials; (4) Additional relevant data for recovery.

The mining waste section of the MIN4EU database is now publicly accessible via the EGDI (European Geological Data Infrastructure – www.europe-geology.eu/) portal and the Urban Mine Platform (www.urbanmineplatform.eu/) developed within FutuRaM. Currently, it covers mining waste data from 20+ European countries. Gaps may exist due to limited historical mining activity or incomplete inventories, but the database remains dynamic, linked to national geological surveys and mining authorities. It is open to new contributions to better appraise the potential source of unrecovered critical and non-critical metals. The communication will present the structure of this database and showcase data access via the Urban Mine Platform.

FutuRaM is funded by the European Union (GA 101058522).