FRAME’s (Forecasting and Assessing Europe’s Strategic Raw Materials Needs) innovative research in mineral raw materials on the eve of the EU’s “Green Deal”

The EU’s Green Deal policy recognises that Europe needs a new growth strategy that transforms the Union into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy where 1- there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 and 2-economic growth is coupled to efficient use of resources. To meet the future energy demand through zero emission renewables, the power sector faces a massive deployment of wind and PV technologies. The result will be a drastic increase in the consumption of raw materials (RM) necessary to manufacture wind turbines and photovoltaic panels. On the eve of the EU’s “Green Deal”, one of GeoERA’s RM projects, FRAME, is clearly aware of this need for increased mineral RM demand and was structured to carry out much needed research into strategic and critical mineral RM (SRM and CRM). FRAME is completing and updating existing minerals data sets (ex. Minerals4EU available through EGDI - EuroGeoSurveys' European Geological Data Infrastructure). The latest GIS techniques are employed allowing prediction of new mineral RM sources for promising development, including economic geology updates on battery and conflict minerals. Phosphate deposits are critically being looked at for their CRM content and detailed research also focuses on the Energy Critical Elements (Li, Co, C). In light of modern analytical techniques, old mining sites are potentially a new source of mineral RM. Additionally, FRAME anticipates the Commission’s responsible sourcing policy to be enforced in 2021 to stem the trade in conflict minerals and is researching possible EU sources of the so-called “conflict minerals”.