Quarry at Campu d'Ava (Calvi, France).
© BRGM - Thomas Gutierrez
Your issues and needs
When opening new quarries or extending existing sites, companies involved in extracting industrial minerals, building materials or ornamental stone have a variety of needs:
- Ensuring sufficient land reserves to amortise their industrial investment;
- Knowing the quality of the deposit and its possible variations;
- Optimising an industrial site according to the specific characteristics of the local deposit.
Our added value
As a leading mineral resources player, BRGM provides a complete solution for assessing a deposit to characterise its reserves by quality over all or part of the industrial project, in particular covering the prospecting phase, drilling, deposit modelling, resource assessment and the phasing of the extraction process.
To meet your needs, we provide the following services:
- Review of existing data from boreholes, sections, analyses, reports and other technical data (topography, 3D model for reserves, etc.);
- Site visit and surface or borehole sampling, with analyses specific to each potential outlet sector;
- Drawing up and monitoring an exploration programme and, where appropriate, an analysis campaign, with quality assurance and quality control;
- 3D modelling and calculation of reserves by quality.
Kaolin quarry in Fumel (France).
© BRGM - Thomas Gutierrez
Sand pit at Marcheprime (Gironde, France).
© BRGM - Thomas Gutierrez
Core drilling for deposit assessment (Aquitaine, France).
© BRGM - Thomas Gutierrez
Example of 3D modelling to calculate resources.
© BRGM
Analytical tools and platforms
- Geology expertise and prospecting: locating and monitoring boreholes, geochemistry, the mineral resources value chain, industrial processes;
- 3D modelling software: Surpac™, GDM™, Geomodeller™;
- COFRAC-certified rock and fluid analysis and characterisation laboratory.
References
BRGM experts have many years of experience in assessing metallic substance deposits and in a wide range of industrial mineral and construction materials: 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. A recent institutional reference example that can nonetheless be cited is the characterisation of an aggregate deposit in French Guiana (2022): prospecting, design and monitoring of the drilling campaign, sampling and quality analyses to establish potential markets for the use of aggregates and characterisation of reserves for a new aggregate mining site in an isolated area (jungle with no road access).
To find out more
References
Solutions
