The annual World Resources Forum WRF 2017 was held in Geneva, Switzerland on the 24th and 25th October 2017 with over 400 participants. Two years after the establishment of two historic global agreements – the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change – leaders and other agents from government, business, research and NGOs came to “UN capital” Geneva, to talk about how to accelerate the Resource Revolution. The two-day conference was opened by Valentin Zellweger, the Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations in Geneva. Partner workshops were held on various topics related to the main theme of the WRF 2017 conference, including workshop “International Cooperation on Raw Materials in the European Union Horizon 2020 Programme”, organized by the FORAM Management Committee in coordination with the European Commission. This workshop is related to the Horizon 2020 funded project, FORAM, which aims to develop a platform of international experts and stakeholders that will enhance the international cooperation on raw material policies and investments: Advancing the idea of a World Forum on Raw Materials. Other projects participating in this workshop were four H2020 projects covering the subjects of the International Cooperation Pillar (FORAM, MinFuture, INTRAW and STRADE), eight projects covering the Non-Technology Pillar (MICA, MIN-GUIDE, MINATURA 2020, ProSUM, SCRREEN, MSP-REFRAM, SMART GROUND, IMPACTPapeRec) and one project from the Technology Pillar (VERAM), all in the framework of the framework of the Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) of the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials and in the funding scheme of Coordination and Support Actions (CSA). They have been chosen for the workshop to improve framework conditions and international cooperation in the raw materials sector from different perspectives. These projects were expected to share their experiences, increase each...

From 22-24 September, more than 130 quarries and plants in 27 countries opened their doors welcoming around 30.000 children and adults to celebrate European Minerals Day and have the rare opportunity to explore the world of minerals and experience how they are sustainable extracted. Typical activities include school visits, guided tours, workshops, exhibitions, biodiversity projects, and many more have been organised. Slavko Solar, EuroGeoSurveys Secretary General stated during the launch of the European Minerals Day event: “These events convinced me that mine or quarry relationships with local community are crucial to obtain, and moreover maintain the social licence to operate. This, next to other communication activities that present mine operation , transparently opens the doors to public awareness, acceptance and finally trust as wishfully written in the EU Document entitled EIP Strategic Implementation Plan.” The 2017 European Minerals Day Launch took place on 21 and 22 September, hosted under the Estonian EU Presidency, kindly hosted by Nordkalk and Kunda Nordic Tsement at their operations in Kurevere and Kunda. It welcomed representatives from the European Commission, Estonian government, partnering sectors, academia, NGOs, media and local administrations. The balanced and insightful presentations by the guest speakers was complemented by visits of both quarry operations, the cement plant and port in Kunda, a blasting in Kurevere and introduction to the local biodiversity projects on birds and orchids. The sector is important to the EU jobs and growth agenda as it directly employs around 1 million people across 30,000 active mines, quarries and plants in Europe, and has an annual turnover of more than €150 billion. The minerals sector forms an integral part of the European value chain with 70% of EU manufacturing depending on the minerals, metals and raw materials mined. “We need to keep jobs, growth, investment and...

PanAfGeo Work Package 3 is delivering a training to African governments on managing artisanal and small-scale mining. PanAfGeo plays an important role in increasing the geological knowledge of African countries and is focused on helping governments improve estimates of their national mineral reserves in order to have a clearer view of potential revenues and increase bargaining power with mining firms. It is a collaboration between IGF (Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development), the EuroGeoSurveys (EGS) and its counterpart in Africa, the Organisation of African Geological Surveys (OAGS). The European Commission has also provided financial support for PanAfGeo’s WP3 program, which aims to deliver seven regional training sessions in 2017-2019. The first training session takes currently place in Accra, Ghana September until the 21st, 2017.  More than 40 representatives from Ghana and 11 representatives from the geological surveys in neighbouring countries will be attending the training. The first training session takes currently place in Accra, Ghana until the 21st 2017 of September. The main aim of the workshop is to train staff from the Ghana Geological Survey Authority (GGSA), regulatory agencies and the universities involved in the ASM sector to strengthen their capacity to assist ASM operators in Ghana while providing regional perspectives. Particular emphasis will be on how the knowledge and skills resources of the GGSA can be mobilized more actively in the service of ASM operators so as to ensure more profitable, efficient, environmentally friendly, safe and sustainable mining operations in Ghana. ASM operations employ more than 1 million people in Ghana and provide a livelihood to approximately 4-6 million. It is estimated that legal ASM accounts for more than one third of gold exports from Ghana while the share provided by illegal ASM is unknown. Thus, while legal ASM contributes significantly to Ghana’s GDP, illegal mining...

The new FORAM NEWSLETTER is out! Find out more about FORAM, its objectives and the way it will make a difference. IN THIS SECOND EDITION… Interview with Dr. Karen Hanghoj Interview with Prof. Victoire de Margerie Interview with Harikrishnan Tulsidas FORAM project global mapping and analysis of raw materials initiatives The FORAM project at the World Resources Forum (WRF) Enhancing dialogues among FORAM stakeholders Download the 2nd FORAM...

Investing in the European future we want – High Level Group report on maximising the impact of EU Research & Innovation Programmes   On Monday 3rd of July, the “Research & Innovation – shaping our future” conference took place at the Charlemagne Conference Centre in Brussels hosted by Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation. In the context of the interim evaluation of Horizon 2020, a report on the impact of European research and innovation programmes has been introduced by Pascal Lamy, Chair of the High Level Group of Experts set up by the European Commission last September 2016. The report defends 11 recommendations aimed at maximising the impact of the EU’s investment in research and innovation. Click here to download the full...

La Palma Research Centre hosted the MICA project’s ‘Raw Materials Foresight Methodology Workshop’ on the 10th and 11th of May in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. The main objective of the workshop was to frame the MICA foresight methodology recommendations in a minerals policy context on a 2030-2050 timescale. Workshop participants included MICA project partners and a number of external experts on both foresight and raw materials. On the first day of the meeting, the external experts and the research centre team presented examples of foresight case-studies in both raw materials and other fields. These presentations were successful in generating broad-ranging discussion on foresight methods utilised in the case studies, common constraints on the foresight process, and how to establish more accurate proxies during foresight evaluation. The second day began with a review and summary of the findings of the first day. Subsequently, there were further presentations and discussions aimed at establishing a common vision and recommendations for EU minerals policy and the upcoming MICA ‘Raw Materials Intelligence Platform’ (EU-RMICP), which is due to be launched in January 2018. The workshop ended on a positive note after a final group exercise which took place at Columbus House. During this session, workshop participants explored potential pathways for the future of the mineral raw materials sector. The experts also provided recommendations on how foresight studies could aid EU-RMICP users in understanding how different factors may influence the sector over longer time horizons. During the workshop, recommendations were agreed upon to improve EU-RMICP functionality by answering stakeholders’ needs with custom foresight approaches. The group also gave their ideas on how to enhance the development of the MICA ‘Raw Materials Foresight Guide’, which will be released in August...

On 8th and 9th May, 2017, the conference ‘EU-Latin America Dialogue on Raw Materials: consolidating the co-operation’ was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was attended by over 50 high-level delegates from Latin American countries, the European Commission, Geological Surveys, international organisations, and European projects. It was the last of a series of conferences in the frame of the EU-Latin America Policy Dialogue on Raw Materials, after the ones held in Lima, Peru (2014), Cartagena de Indias, Colombia (2015) and Santiago, Chile (2016). The ‘Dialogue’, aiming at improving cooperation on raw materials between the European Union and Latin American countries, has focused on cooperation in investment, technology, research and innovation and exchange of good practices on good governance between the two sides of the Atlantic. The Buenos Aires conference subject was on expanding the opportunities for multilateral investments through the new Mineral Development Network Platform; sharing tangible solutions for promptly meeting the increased standards for sustainable mining practices; highlighting the EU companies’ mining expertise and bolster business opportunities. During the conference, participants shared mineral policies best practices. The Secretary General of EuroGeoSurveys gave a speech on ‘Towards a World Forum on Raw Materials’, where he discussed the FORAM project, explaining how the project is organized and the future developments. In particular, he invited the participants not yet involved to become partners of the FORAM Stakeholders Network. The speech raised a big deal of attention, and the European Commission later sent to all participants the information for joining the...

The 1815 eruption at Mount Tambora is widely considered the most damaging in human history. It led to global extreme weather change. The harvests failed and 1816 is remembered in Europe as the year without a summer. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1815_eruption_of_Mount_Tambora) Europe had seen failing harvests since 1812. The extreme summer of 1816 forced people to eat their remaining cattle and horses, famine occurred. The German inventor Karl Drais started to develop a machine that could replace the horse for transportation. In 1817 he introduced  “Die Laufmaschine” (Veliocipede). On June 12th 1817 Drais made the first bicycle ride in history, form Mannheim to the Coaching Inn  “Schwetzinger Relaishaus”, a distance of 5 miles (8km) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Drais) The Geological Survey of Norway will try to initiate an event on June 12th 2017 to mark this 200 years jubilee: The volcano that gave us the bicycle! [Source: NGU – Geological Survey of...

The oldest traces of life on Earth An international team, with the researchers Tor Grenne at the Geological Survey of Norway and John F. Slack from USGS on board, has recently found relics on the world’s oldest known life. These are traces of microscopic organisms that lived at hot springs down on the seabed more than 3770 million years ago. Possibly they can be as old as 4280 million years. By comparison, the age of the earth is around 4600 million years old, and the oldest traces of life on land about 460 million years. The primitive organisms themselves are not preserved, but they can be traced through thin threads and pipe-like structures in fine-grained iron minerals in the rock. The tiny structures have characteristic shapes and branches that correspond to what we find around metal-rich hot springs on long-term dispersal backs on the seabed today. Here, very special bacteria live by oxidizing iron and turning it into rust, a kind of iron oxide that eventually transforms into hematite. The researchers have emphasized systematically to investigate whether the findings may stem from non-biological processes, such as temperature and pressure changes in the rocks after they were deposited. The conclusion is that the structures must originate from microorganisms. Another indication is that along with particular structures are graphite, apatite and carbonate, which are typical of converted biological material, as well as instances of small round structures, so-called rosettes and granules, which are formed during the degradation of bacterial residues on the seabed. These are identical to discoveries in younger rocks through much of the geological history of the Earth, including rocks the researchers have studied in North America, Western Australia and Norway. At Løkken in Central Norway there are microscopic wire-shaped traces of bacteria that...

PRESS RELEASE Bern, 3 March 2017 – the Federal Council (the 7-member government of Switzerland) stated its position on the use of the subsurface by hydraulic fracturing (fracking). The application of the technology should in general be possible under certain conditions, in particular when associated with drillings to extract geothermal heat from great depths. However, the Federal Council does not support the development of natural gas reserves by hydraulic fracturing due to Switzerland’s climate policy. At the same time, the Federal Council sees no reason for a moratorium. Swisstopo, Switzerland’s geological survey, will follow the acquisition and valorisation of these geological underground data. The link to this press release is (French, Italian and German):...