Conference Agenda

Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).

 
 
Session Overview
Session
1.4-3 Raw Materials and their societal relevance for Europe
Time:
Tuesday, 25/Aug/2020:
5:50pm - 7:05pm

Location: Room 2.01

Session Abstract

by Antje Wittenberg & Henrike Sievers

Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Germany

Raw Materials are crucial components of a vital and wealthy society. This holds for societies affected by mining, manufacturing and agriculture  as  well  as  for  those  that  reached  a  de-industrialised  status.  Sustainable  supply  of  raw  materials  always  calls  for accessibility to mineral deposits and productive mines. It is getting more and more challenging to meet these needs not only due to the competing land-use issues and to provide a fair share of costs and benefit to all. The realisation of a low-carbon society and a self-concept of reliable sourcing increasingly require short feed strokes and local sourcing. Although Europe has a long history in mining, it is still widely underexplored in particular with modern exploration methods. A good understanding of mineral systems, mining sites and remaining resources of historical sites is still of utmost importance. This session invites contributions from the entire mining cycle spanning from raw materials exploration to active mining in Europe indicating a socio-economic importance to our society in particular.Fridays For Future, UN SDG, EC Green Deal and many more are focussing on issues towards a carbon neutral economy. All those aspects need actions by Geoscientists and will put pressure on the raw materials demand side.


Presentations
5:50pm - 6:05pm
ID: 335
Virtual Presentation

Energy storage in salt caverns: Technical, regulatory and societal challenges from an energy and mining perspective

Serge van Gessel1, Isis van Wetten1, Gregor Schneider2, Ingrid Kroon1

1TNO - Geological Survey of the Netherlands, Utrecht, Netherlands; 2DEEP-KBB GmbH, Hannover, Germany

Rock salt is an abundant mineral typically applied in chemical industry, food industry and road de-icing. Besides extraction from seawater and surface occurrences, subsurface mining is common practice in several European countries (e.g. Netherlands, Germany, UK, Poland, France, Portugal, Denmark) and accounts for ca. 60% of all salt produced. The northern parts of Germany and the Netherlands have favorable conditions for solution mining in salt pillars and domes. On several locations solution-mined salt caverns are deployed for underground storage of natural gas, crude oil, compressed air, nitrogen hydrogen and helium.

In the coming decades Europe’s energy system will change drastically with an expected increase of variable renewable energy production (solar and wind) and introduction of renewable gases including hydrogen. Regular excess peaks in electricity production may become a source for green hydrogen production via electrolysis while the same hydrogen may be used to cover energy demand during prolonged periods without wind and sun as well as periods with peak heat demands (e.g. cold winters). Large-scale storage volumes in salt caverns provide essential solutions for the balancing of hydrogen supply and demand. Future energy scenarios for the Netherlands alone predict a need for several tens of caverns. The development of such amounts introduces several challenges:

- High demand for storage caverns will probably result in overproduction of salt which negatively impacts the salt market and raises the issue brine disposal.

- Storage caverns specifications differ from typical production caverns with smaller volumes and lower revenues for the salt industry.

- Demand for storage caverns does not always coincide with existing salt production sites. Besides that, storage caverns may need to be spread across multiple locations to avoid excessive localized subsidence effects. This may lead to issues of social acceptance among local residents in targeted areas.

- The different interests of the energy and salt industries may trigger competition for the use of subsurface salt formations.

- Storage caverns will eventually be abandoned. With high numbers of locations this raises the issue of potential long term subsidence effects in relation to public safety and acceptance.

The above challenges are a reason for national and regional authorities to review and adapt existing regulations and legislation in order to reassure a responsible development of salt caverns and a well-functioning link between storage and salt market interests. Recent workshops in the Netherlands and Germany concluded that stakeholder participation from national and local authorities, operators, research institutions and local communities is key in this respect.

van Gessel-Energy storage in salt caverns_Info.pdf


6:05pm - 6:20pm
ID: 195
Virtual Presentation

Natural stone resources and sustainability

Tom Heldal1, Jorge Carvalho2

1Geological Survey of Norway, Norway (NGU); 2Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia (LNEG)

Natural stone is perhaps the most widely used building material in the history of human evolution, applied in a range of applications, from the most prestigious monuments of civilisations to humble shelters. Being a construction material of high quality produced be simply shaping rocks to more or less advanced elements, it is relevant to ask if this magnificent building material of the past also can play an important role in our low-carbon future.

The presentation will focus on two main aspects:

Comparing natural stone to other building materials. Natural stone is at present time used for cladding of floors and walls in buildings, but also for paving of streets and squares and structural elements in constructions. By comparing indicators of sustainability within the different uses, we may conclude that the use of natural stone, particularly when replacing concrete and other high-emission products, can contribute to increasing sustainability in the construction industries.

Identifying key aspects for more sustainable natural stone production. Although natural stone may have important properties related to sustainability compared to other materials, there are needs for improvements in the production of stone for reducing environmental footprints. We have collected cases of best performance, within a selection of areas: zero waste, emissions and balanced land use management.

Finally, the presentation will discuss how national and regional public authorities, the geological surveys, private consultants and the industry can collaborate for implementing a rational management of the natural stone resources and the extractive industry for the future benefit of humankind.

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Heldal-Natural stone resources and sustainability_Info.pdf


6:20pm - 6:35pm
ID: 144
Virtual Presentation

IRIS Online (Interactive Raw Materials Information System) of Austria

Piotr Lipiarski1, Leopold Weber2, Albert Schedl1, Heinz Reitner1

1Geological Survey of Austria, Austria; 2Former head of minerals policy department of the Federal Ministry of Economy, Vienna, Austria

The new Austrian digital Interactive Raw Materials Information System IRIS Online allows to display geological, tectonical, geochemical, aerogeophysical maps, maps of metamorphic events, mineral deposits / occurrences a.s.o. simultaneously. The database comprises more than 5700 entries of Austrian mineral deposits / occurrences and more than 17.000 references. Special queries (groups of minerals, deposits, geochemical anomalies a.s.o.) are possible. The mineral deposits/occurrences are subdivided into appr. 200 metallogenetic districts (mineral deposits / occurrences within a clearly defined tectonic unit, a specific stratigraphic or facies unit, characterised by both similar shape and mineral content of the individual deposits / occurrences).

One of the main targets of the staff of the Geological Survey was to design the IRIS database and a user friendly operability using ESRI ArcGIS Online application. Furthermore, the Geological Survey implemented the definitions of the metallogenetic districts and mineral commodities into their thesaurus.

IRIS Online is not only an important expert tool for exploration, but for scientists as well, allowing to synthesise their own metallogenetic concepts. The Application can be found at the homepage of the Geological Survery of Austria (GBA) under following link: https://www.geologie.ac.at/services/webapplikationen/iris-interaktives-rohstoffinformationssystem/. There is also a possibility to use IRIS services with a GIS Software and mixed them with another data sources. IRIS database would be also a source for INSPIRE and Mintell4EU deliverables.

Lipiarski-IRIS Online (Interactive Raw Materials Information System)_Info.pdf


6:35pm - 6:50pm
ID: 253
Virtual Presentation

European Minerals Inventory as part of the Mineral Intelligence for Europe

Špela Kumelj1, Jasna Šinigoj1, Duška Rokavec1, Andrej Vihtelič1, Lisbeth Flindt Jørgensen2, David Whitehead2

1Geological Survey of Slovenia; 2Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Denmark

Primary and secondary mineral raw materials are of strategic importance for the EU. Improvement of the existing European Minerals Inventory (current M4EU database) became necessary in order to include most European countries, since some of them were not covered. Harmonisation of existing data is also necessary since datasets of different European countries vary between each other due to traditions etc.

The geographical coverage of the Minerals Inventory is being extended with data from the West Balkan countries as mineral data from this region represented a gap in the existing mineral inventory. Therefore mineral data from seven South East Europe countries (Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia and Montenegro) were obtained , evaluated and transformed into Inspire compliant common European mineral system with the support of GeoZS experts in the frame of EIT RM “RESEERVE” project.

The process of refining the European Minerals Inventory, includes: (a) geographical coverage expansion, (b) setting up quality control application to identify data gaps, low-quality or missing data and data errors, (c) technical errors identification in the harvesting process and (d) establishment of links with other related projects. MINTELL4EU Quality Control Application (QCA) was developed to examine the latest data reported by data providers . Accordingly, a harvesting system for the collection and validation of mineral resources data has been established by the Geological Survey of Slovenia. Harvesting is a process that collects and validates data from different sources and automatically extracts data from numerous web services into a central database. Presently, the harvesting is performed once a month for 31 data providers across Europe. The process utilizes INSPIRE solutions as a common standard. Technical routines developed as part of the harvesting process allow online control of data quality and verify that the harvesting was successfull.

The activities described above are implemented within GeoERA ERA-NET Co-Fund Action in Mintell4EU and GIP-P projects. GeoERA has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 731166.

Flindt Jørgensen-European Minerals Inventory as part of the Mineral Intelligence_Info.pdf


6:50pm - 7:05pm
ID: 240
Invited Virtual Presentation | Keynote

UN Framework Classification - a tool for Sustainable Resource Management

Zoltán Horváth1, Daniel de Oliveira2, Kari Aslaksen Aasly3, Mark Simoni3, Lisbeth Flindt Jørgensen4, David Whitehead4, Antje Wittenberg5, Ulrich Kral6, Charlotte Griffiths7, Harikrishnan Tulsidas7, Slavko Solar8

1Mining and Geological Suvey of Hungary (MBFSZ), 17-23 Columbus Street, 1145 Budapest, Hungary; 2National Laboratory for Energy and Geology (LNEG), Estrada da Portela, Bairro do Zambujal – Alfragide, Apartado 7586 - 2610-999 Amadora, Portugal; 3The Geological Survey of Norway, Postboks 6315 Torgarden, 7491 Trondheim, Norway; 4Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), Øster Voldgade 10, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark; 5Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, BGR, Stilleweg 2, 30655 Hannover / Germany; 6Technische Universität Wien Faculty of Civil Engineering Research Center for Waste and Resource Management Karlsplatz 13/226 A-1040 Vienna Austria; 7United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Palais des Nations, CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland; 8EuroGeoSurveys, Rue Joseph II, 36-38, Box 7, 1000 Brussels, Belgium

With the global increase of raw material consumption there is a growing need for standardized decision support tools for sustainable resource management both at global and EU-levels. The United Nations Framework Classification for Resources (UNFC) integrated into the UN Resource Management System (UNRMS) might be such a tool by handling the level of confidence (geological knowledge), feasibility of a project and economic and social-environmental considerations.

UNFC provides a uniform approach to understanding and managing the full diversity of earth resources ranging from energy and non-energy minerals over renewables and anthropogenic resources to groundwater. It provides a set of rules for bridging between national/regional and internationally recognized systems (e.g. CRIRSCO family) and provides flexibility to and assess projects according to national/regional legislations.

Many European countries have related publications, tests and developed guidance documents. EuroGeoSurveys (https://www.eurogeosurveys.org), as the community of European National Geological Surveys have supported projects for the development of a common language for raw materials and co-operatation with the Expert Group on Resource Management (EGRM) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE, https://www.unece.org).

Applications have been proved in former EU-cofinanced projects. MINERALS4EU (http://www.minerals4eu.eu) and ORAMA (https://orama-h2020.eu) dealt with the mineral intelligence and raw materials data optimization for Europe. Through GeoERA (https://geoera.eu/) the MINTELL4EU (https://geoera.eu/projects/mintell4eu7) is developing number of test cases on the applicability the UNFC in practice. The FRAME (http://www.frame.lneg.pt) project provides UNFC case studies for strategic raw materials and MINEA (www.minea-network.eu) deals with secondary resources.

This publication presents EuroGeoSurveys activites with UNFC and demonstrates practical case studies.

Horváth-UN Framework Classification_Info.pdf