Mineral Resources

The team « Mineral Resources » focuses its activity on global metallogenic systems including the whole element cycle from source to ore deposit (extraction, transport, deposition, preservation), within its space and time framework. The first target is the metals for which researchers have an international recognition (Uranium, in partnership with Areva, under the Framework of CREGU), Gold (european projects, Waxi project, for instance), but also develops new lines of research related to « critical » metals or metals of great economic importance, such as Nickel. The so-called « critical or strategic » metals are essential for the new technological sectors (rare earth elements, Ge-In…) and the study of their geochemical cycle, as well as the specific problems linked to their processing constitutes a priority line of research of the labex « Strategic Ressources for the 21th century » (site web), a project for which the Team Mineral Resources is a pillar.

Scientific goals concern a better understanding of: i) metals concentrations associated with crustal growth and evolution within the frame of plate tectonics (multimethod approach combining field geology, structural analysis, petrology, geochemistry, geochronology), ii) the processes governing the extraction of metals from rock sources, their transport by fluid phases (speciation, especially through experimental studies, and spectroscopic monitoring, fluid origin), and iii) ore formation (PVTX reconstruction through integrated paleo-fluid studies (microthermometry, Raman, spectroscopy, LA-ICP-MS), thermodynamic and experimental modeling dating of ore stages), the overall data yielding to conceptual and numerical modelling of the genesis of ore deposits within their geologic and geodynamic contexts.