Pyroxenite block quarry (Central Africa, 2021).
© BRGM - Thomas Gutierrez
Your challenges and needs
You are an industrial company:
- Moving into new markets;
- Investing in a new geographical area;
- Seeking to diversify your asset portfolio.
You are an institution seeking to boost growth in a sector:
- To meet local needs and limit imports;
- To create jobs and economic development in a region;
- To export production in excess of domestic demand;
- To attract industrial investors to pre-targeted projects.
You have the following needs:
- To target sites or areas with the greatest potential in order to limit expenditure and time spent on exploration;
- To receive advice on the mineral sectors with the greatest development potential and on the work programme to be implemented to best capitalise on them.
Sampling in a quarry in Central Africa as part of a project to assess the national potential for industrial minerals and construction materials (Central Africa, 2021).
© BRGM - Thomas Gutierrez
Our added value
As a leading mineral resources player in France and internationally, BRGM offers a solution for assessing the development potential of a mineral sector on a large scale (regional or national). BRGM's position as a reference public institution in knowledge, management and development of subsurface potential enables it to carry out the full range of studies required, from reconnaissance, sampling and analysis through to interpretation of results and formulation of recommendations. It maintains the strictest levels of confidentiality in the expert appraisals it is entrusted with. Lastly, BRGM's experts have extensive international field experience, including in complex areas (accessibility, material and logistical conditions, climate, etc.).
Detailed view of foundry quartz from the Kiranomena mine, west of Antananarivo (Madagascar, 2001).
© BRGM - Michel Bonnemaison
To meet your needs, we offer the following services:
- Review of existing data from our document collection, our databases and various external sources;
- Site visit(s), with a level of detail per site that can be adapted according to needs and context;
- Opinions and recommendations on the sectors identified as having the greatest development potential;
- Opinions and recommendations on sites identified as priorities and the studies to be conducted on them;
- Optional industrial preliminary feasibility tests in BRGM's pilot plant or in our network of partners;
- Creation of a database of deposits/quarries/economic players in the sector; this can take the form of a geographic information system, depending on needs and the data used;
- Promotion of study results at international conferences or through promotional materials (brochures, website, etc.);
- Experience in numerous countries around the world;
- Experience in organising projects and field operations in difficult contexts.
Photograph taken during a mission to identify potential for precious metals, minerals, geothermal energy and hydrocarbon deposits (Vanuatu archipelago, 2005).
© BRGM - Pierre Maurizot
Analytical tools and platforms
- Expertise in geology, exploration techniques, locating and monitoring boreholes, geochemistry, the mineral resources value chain, industrial processes, mineral intelligence and communication. BRGM can mobilise a multidisciplinary team to best meet your needs;
- COFRAC-certified rock and fluid analysis and characterisation laboratory.
Some references
BRGM's experts have many years of experience in assessing deposits in a wide range of industrial mineral and construction material sectors: phosphates, aggregates, industrial mineral fillers (GCC, talc, kaolin), industrial silica, ornamental rocks, diatomite, etc.
Most studies carried out by BRGM in this area are subject to confidentiality clauses with private clients. We can nevertheless give a few examples of our institutional projects:
- Inventory of national geomaterial potential in Central Africa: identification of a thousand occurrences in the literature, followed by the deployment of teams of geologists throughout the country to visit 527 sites identified as priorities. Samples were taken and analysed from 248 sites, including 126 with proven potential for terracotta clays, silica for glassmaking, kaolin and feldspars for ceramics, ornamental rocks, pozzolana for cement and carbonates for mineral fillers. A database of deposits and quarries in operation was created and recommendations were formulated.
- Gabon's industrial rock and mineral potential: the potential of several substances (bauxite, barite, potash, talc, phosphate, kaolin, terracotta clays and carbonates) was studied in the country.
- Preliminary feasibility study of an ornamental rock sector on Reunion Island: assessment of resources with quality tests specific to each sector and formulation of technical and institutional recommendations.
To find out more
References
Solutions
