Launching of OFREMI: French Observatory of Mineral Resources

Develop and share strategic and prospective analysis tools

Led by BRGM, OFREMI also draws on the expertise of the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA), the French Petroleum and New Energies Institute (IFPEN), the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI) and the French National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts (CNAM).

Launched with the support of the Mining and Metallurgy Strategic Committee (CSF), OFREMI's mission is to strengthen the resilience and sovereignty of France's strategic industrial sectors by helping them to secure their mineral resource supplies.

With geopolitical tensions and energy and digital transition policies increasing our need for mineral resources, geopolitical, social, logistical and even climatic disruptions are weakening our supply lines and threatening our sovereignty and the autonomy of our industrial sectors. Faced with this situation, OFREMI will make it possible to develop and pool strategic and prospective analysis tools in order to provide public and private players with analytical elements before decisions are taken.

Cover the entire value chain, from supply to demand, for the various French industrial sectors

“There was no structure in France for developing ongoing technical-economic and strategic analyses of the issue of raw material supplies covering the entire value chain, from supply to demand, for the various French industrial sectors.  By bringing together the main experts in these fields, OFREMI will make it possible to provide public authorities and industrial sectors with high added-value, multidisciplinary strategic analyses on an ongoing basis to fuel collective reflection and enable the identification of potentially hidden weaknesses, the diversification of supply lines and possible investment decisions”, explains Christophe Poinssot, Deputy Director General of BRGM, who led the development of the Observatory.

Provide a quick overview for public and economic players

In addition to the substantive actions, a “hotline” will also be created to respond quickly to the needs of industry or government. “With OFREMI, we will be able to mobilise a multidisciplinary work force of around 25 experts spread across the 6 partner institutions and covering the fields of market economics, resource geology, key technologies of today and tomorrow for industry, and the management of geopolitical risks or environmental impacts. If tensions were to arise or a crisis to occur, we would be able to provide rapid insight to help public and economic players define the best possible responses,” emphasises Stéphane Bourg, Director of OFREMI within BRGM.

“The Observatory's work programme will be determined by all the stakeholders, both public (representing all the ministries involved in raw materials issues) and private, such as the French aeronautics and space industries grouping (GIFAS), the union of metallurgical industries and trades (UIMM) and the automotive platform (PFA),” insists Bruno Jacquemin, General Delegate of the Ore, Minerals and Metals Alliance (A3M for alliance minerais, minéraux, métaux) and permanent delegate of the CSF Mines & Métallurgie, who is heavily involved in structuring OFREMI's private partnerships.