Launch of the mineral resources inventory in Cayenne, French Guiana, on Thursday 20 March 2025
© BRGM
Last February, in the presence of the French Minister for Industry and Energy, BRGM, the French national geological survey, officially launched France’s inventory of subsurface mineral resources, a programme to update knowledge on subsurface resources in mainland France and French Guiana.
The aim of the inventory is to help secure supplies of mineral resources in France and Europe, at a time when these raw materials are becoming increasingly necessary and strategically important.
Five geographical areas have been identified as a priority because of their high potential for minerals: the western Massif Central, the Morvan-Brévenne area, the Vosges mountains, the Occitanie-Cévennes region and French Guiana’s Northern furrow.
Updating and expanding knowledge on French Guiana’s subsurface
On 20 March 2025, BRGM launched an update of French Guiana’s mineral resources inventory.
The new inventory will focus on strategic exploration phases to identify the most promising areas within the French Guiana regions that are compatible with the project’s objectives, considering environmental and regulatory constraints. To update this geological knowledge, non-intrusive methods will be used.
The updating process will focus on a strip running across the north of the country, between Cayenne in the east and the border with Suriname. This region is known to harbour various mineral deposits, including gold, copper, lead, zinc, lithium, niobium and tantalum. Its geological features mean that it has exceptional potential in terms of new critical metals.
BRGM’s 2013 update of French Guiana’s mining inventory had revealed pockets of tantalum-niobium, bauxite, kaolin and heavy mineral sands, a largely untapped strategic resource.
Breakdown of the 5 geographical zones targeted by the mineral resources inventory.
© BRGM
A mineral resources inventory to secure supplies in strategic mineral resources
The mineral resources inventory is a 53 million euro programme with a projected duration of five years, whose purpose is to update the mining inventory carried out from 1970 to 1995 by BRGM in mainland France and French Guiana. The inventory will be expanded to cover more minerals and will make the most of recent developments in exploration and analytical techniques.
Major airborne geophysical surveys are being launched using the most advanced technology to collect data from the near surface to depths of over a thousand metres. These airborne survey programmes, by helicopter and aeroplane, will benefit from the experience gained in recent years in mainland France, such as in the Massif Central and the Vosges.
At the same time, sediments will be sampled in rivers to carry out geochemical analyses to supplement existing geological knowledge and cross-reference the data with geophysical studies. All of this information will then have to be cross-interpreted to identify areas that are likely to contain ore bodies of interest.
In this strategic phase of the mineral resources inventory, the methods used are non-invasive and non-destructive – in particular, no drilling or deforestation will be carried out.
BRGM officially launched the update of French Guiana’s mineral resources inventory in the presence of Antoine Poussier, Prefect of French Guiana, Jean-Victor Castor, Member of Parliament for French Guiana, Alexandre Briand, Vice-President of the French Guiana Federation of Mining Operators (FEDOMG), Marc Le Bouil, Commander of the French Guiana Armed Forces, Patrick Lecante, Mayor of Montsinéry and Chair of the Water and Biodiversity Committee, and Ivan Martin, Director General for Inland and Marine Areas (DGTM). The Kourou City Council, Sinnamary Local Council, French Guiana Gendarmerie Command Unit, French Guiana Regional Council, Guyane Nature Environnement, French Guiana Amazonian Park, French Forestry Commission (ONF), French Guiana Water Office and the Interministerial Mission for First Nation Peoples and Surinamese Maroons (Mission Interministérielle des Populations Amérindiennes et Bushinenges) were also represented.