How can you tell if a gold nugget is from a legally operated gold mine? Which analyses are necessary to identify the quarry that provided the stone used to sculpt an ancient statue? BRGM’s serious game lets you open the door to our laboratories and try to solve our two geological mysteries.

Isoroches: BRGM's serious game

Extract from BRGM’s serious game.

Two game scenarios

To play the game, choose one of two possible scenarios:

Trace gold back to its source

You are a BRGM researcher, and you have been contacted by an NGO to find out whether a sample of gold is from an illegal gold panning site. Illegal gold mining is a threat to fauna, flora and the local population.

Identify the origins of alabaster

The Louvre Museum has contacted you to identify the quarry that provided the stone for a precious alabaster statuette. Finding out where the alabaster came from can help to identify the sculptor, retrace the history of the statue or carry out restoration work.

BRGM laboratories: state-of-the-art scientific equipment

BRGM has a wide range of scientific equipment at its main site in Orléans, for analysis, characterisation and experimentation. The modernisation of BRGM's scientific facilities (scientific equipment, infrastructure) is part of a strategic drive to make measurement the key component of its scientific activity. Designing, developing and implementing methods of analysis, characterisation, experimentation and modelling are all essential components of a scientific approach whose purpose is to provide innovative products and services responding to societal and economic issues, in order to promote sustainable resource management.

Find out more about analysis and experimentation at BRGM