To meet the European Unions growing demand for critical raw materials in the transition to green energy, this study presents a novel, cost-effective, and non-invasive methodology for mineral prospectivity mapping. By integrating hyperspectral data from satellite, airborne, and ground-based sources with deep learning techniques, we enhance mineral exploration efficiency. We employ Bayesian Neural Networks (BNNs)...
Critical Raw Materials are crucial to achieve the European Unions (EU) goals of a climate-neutral economy by 2050. The high supply risk led the EU to prioritise domestic mineral exploration. This study, part of the S34I - SECURE AND SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY OF RAW MATERIALS project, utilised remote-sensing-based methods to identify and map heavy-mineral (HM) placer deposits in the Ria de Vigo, located in Galicia, Spa...
Remote sensing applications for marine placer deposit exploration remain limited due to the mineralogical complexity and dynamic coastal processes. This study presents the first medium- to high-level detailed multi-scale remote sensing analysis of placer deposits in the R & iacute;as Baixas, NW Spain, focusing on five beaches within the Vigo Estuary. Ten beach samples were analyzed for their heavy mineral (HM) ...
AetherGeo is a standalone piece of software (current version 1.0) that aims to enable the user to analyze raster data, with a special focus on processing multi- and hyperspectral images. Being developed in Python 3.12.4, this application is a free, open-source alternative for spectral analysis, something considered beneficial for researchers, allowing for a flexible approach to start working on the topic withou...
Antimony (Sb) has gained significance as a critical raw material (CRM) within the European Union (EU) due to its strategic importance in various industrial sectors, particularly in the textile industry for flame retardants and as a component of Sb-based semiconductor materials. Moreover, Sb is emerging as a potential alternative for anodes used in lithium-ion batteries, a key element in the energy transition. T...
The New Exploration Tools for European Pegmatite Green-Tech Resources (GREENPEG) spectral database contains the spectral signature, obtained through reflectance spectroscopy studies, of European pegmatites and minerals as well as their host rocks. Samples include pegmatites of the Nb-Y-F (NYF) and Li-Cs-Ta (LCT) chemical types and host rocks from pegmatite locations in Austria, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, and Sp...
<jats:p>Due to the energetic transition at course, new geological exploration technologies are needed to discover mineral deposits containing critical materials such as lithium (Li). The vast majority of European Li deposits are related to LiCsTa (LCT) pegmatites. Literature review indicates that conventional exploration campaigns are dominated by geochemical surveys and related exploration tools. However, othe...
As an important source of lithium and rare earth elements (REE) and other critical elements, pegmatites are of great strategic economic interest for present and future technological development. Identifying new pegmatite deposits is a strategy adopted by the European Union (EU) to decrease its import dependence on non-European countries for these raw materials. It is in this context that the GREENPEG project wa...
<jats:p><p>Granitic pegmatites represent an important source of numerous critical raw materials, and subsequently, the exploration of new deposits has become a crucial objective in the energy transition towards green technologies. Systematic studies of geochemical aureoles related to late-Variscan Lithium-Cesium-Tantalum (LCT) pegmatites at the Fregeneda&#8211;Almendra Pegmatite Field (Central Iberian...
<jats:p>Abstract. The GREENPEG spectral database contains the spectral signature, obtained through reflectance spectroscopy studies, of European pegmatites and minerals, as well as their host rocks. Samples include Nb-Y-F (NYF) and Li-Cs-Ta (LCT)-type pegmatites and host rocks from pegmatite locations in Austria, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, and Spain. The database contains the reflectance spectra (raw and with c...