The global energy transition is driving unprecedented demand for critical and strategic raw materials such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and rare earth elements. In Europe, the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) sets ambitious targets for domestic extraction and processing, and requires Member States to establish national exploration programmes, including geoscientific surveys, mineral mapping and geochemical campaigns. These programmes are generating a new wave of regional and national-scale geophysical datasets and renewing interest in the reinterpretation of legacy data. With most near-surface deposits in well-explored terranes already discovered, future discoveries will increasingly depend on our ability to image deeper, covered and geologically complex targets.
This session invites contributions on all aspects of geophysics applied to mineral exploration, from national to deposit scale. We welcome studies using potential field (gravity, magnetics), electromagnetic, magnetotelluric, induced polarisation, seismic, radiometric and borehole methods, as well as airborne, drone-based and passive-source approaches.
Contributions presenting results, strategies and lessons learned from national exploration programmes, as well as work on low-impact exploration, social acceptance, and secondary resources such as mine waste and tailings, are also welcome. The session aims to bring together academia, geological surveys and industry to discuss how geophysics can support a secure and sustainable supply of raw materials in Europe and worldwide.