EO-MINERS

Earth Observation for

Monitoring and Observing
Environmental and Societal
Impacts of Mineral Resources
Exploration and Exploitation

Minerals and society workshop

Brussels, September 18 - 19, 2013

Stéphane CHEVREL
Project Coordinator
s.chevrel@brgm.fr

www.eo-miners.eu
 The EO-MINERS project

EO-MINERS is a Research and

Technological Developement project funded
by the European Commission
– To help EC improve its raw material policy
and better exploiting mineral resources from
the European territory and its mineral
supplying countries
– To demonstrate how to improve the capacity
of Europe in implementing new mining sites
– To improve interaction between the mining
industry and society
www.eo-miners.eu
 General context

• Securing EC raw
material supply
• ETP – SMR and
its Strategic
Research Agenda
• GMES :
integrating
spaceborne and
subsurface
information
component, EU
Raw Material
Initiative
• GEO - GEOSS

www.eo-miners.eu
 International initiatives and raw
materials
• EU
– The Raw Materials Initiative – Meeting our Critical Needs for
Growth and Jobs in Europe” (COM(2008)699)
– EU’s 2001 Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS) (renewed
in 2006)
– 2005 Thematic Strategy for the Sustainable Use of Natural
Resources
– The “Mining Waste Directive” (2006/21/EC)
– 2008 EGS proposals for the implementation of a coherent EU
non-energy raw materials policy
– Flagship initiative "Resource Efficient Europe"
– European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on raw materials New!
– Africa-EU High Level Conference on Raw Materials
• International
– ICMM Sustainable Development Framework
– SDMI, an international forum for the Sustainable Development
indicators in the Mineral Industry
– African Mining Vision 2050
– African Mining Partnership (AMP)

www.eo-miners.eu
 Economic and societal
importance of minerals
The mining and extractive industry
plays a significant role in the
development of many countries all
over the world

Most sectors, such as

construction, chemicals,
automotive, aerospace,
machinery and equipment
sectors
that provide in the EU a total
value added of € 1´324
billion, and employment for
some 30 million people,
depend on unimpaired access
to raw materials.

www.eo-miners.eu
 Significant ecological footprint of
mining
• 1 kg Gold requires 540,000 kg of material, a large share of
which is due to extraction
• At continental scale mining wastes represent a high
percentage of the total registered waste:
– 26% in U.S. to which another 16% produced by the primary metals industry is
added (EPA, 2004)
– 20% in Europe (EEA, 2003)

• The average
tonnage
imported/tonnage
mining waste ratio
increased from 1:4
to 1:16 in the past
25 years
www.eo-miners.eu
 EO in the Mineral Resource
Development Cycle
• Earth Observation (EO) offers a
unique opportunity and varieties
of methods to collect spatial
information to monitor and
assess each phase of the mining
cycle:
– Spaceborne and airborne
imagery
– Ground and airborne
geophysics
– Geochemistry
– In situ measurements
– Monitoring networks
– 3D modelling
– … www.mineralsed.ca
www.eo-miners.eu
 EO-MINERS overall objective

to bring into play EO-

based methods and tools
– to facilitate and improve
interaction between
the mineral extractive
industry and society
– for its sustainable
development
– while improving its
societal acceptability. Mining vs Society
After Solar and Shields, 2011

www.eo-miners.eu
 Scientific objectives - 1
Assess policy requirements at macro (public)
and micro (mining companies) levels

Define environmental, socio-economic,

societal and sustainable development criteria
and indicators to be possibly dealt with EO

www.eo-miners.eu
 Scientific objectives - 2

Demonstrate the capabilities of

integrated EO-based methods and
tools in:
• Monitoring,
• Managing,
• Contributing to reducing
the environmental and
societal footprints of all
phases of a mining Potential drainage contamination by AMD (ZA)
project
www.eo-miners.eu
 Scientific objectives - 3

• Foster and develop a

sound "trialogue"
between industrialists,
regulatory bodies and
society
– based on reliable and
objective information about
ecosystems, populations
and societies affected by
mining activities

www.eo-miners.eu
 Who we are?

Beneficiary name Country Beneficiary name Country

(BRGM) Bureau de Recherches France Council for Geoscience South Africa
Géologiques et Minières Coordination

British Geological Survey UK Anglo Operations Limited, South Africa

Anglo Technical Division

Tel-Aviv University Israel Université de Versailles – St France

Quentin

Deutsches Zentrum für Luft - Germany Česká Geologická Služba Czech

und Raumfahrt e.V. Republic

Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Germany Sokolovská Uhelná a.s. Czech

Umwelt, Energie GmbH Republic

Geoloski Zavod Slovenije Slovenia Central Asian Institute for Kyrgyzstan

Applied Geoscience
Mineral Industry Research UK KyrgyzAltyn Kyrgyzstan
Organisation

www.eo-miners.eu
 Sokolov lignite open pit
Where we
– CZ
work?
• AMD(Acid Mine
Drainage) CZ(2)
DE(2) KG(2)
• Impact on vegetation
• Coal fires The Makmal gold mine –
UK(2) KG
• Sediment (coal) Dust
• Landscape • Cyanide contamination
 Surface waters
FR(2) Emalahleni (Witbank) coal
degradation
field – ZA  Groundwater?
• The largest coal field in• ZARadioactive
 More than 60 x 60 km contamination?
SI(1)
• AMD (Acid Mine Sokolov •basin
Drainage) Health
IL(1)
affecting • Employement 70%
 Drainage system and depending on mine
Makmal wetlands activity
ZA(2)

 Urban areas
• Coal fires
3 demonstration
• Dust sites (CZ, ZA, KG)
• Subsidence
• Landvalue degradation
• Uncontrolled urban
sprawling www.eo-miners.eu
 Our general approach

EO methods
Expert  and tools
knowledge

Products
Indicators

On‐site 
investigations

Trialogue workshops
Stakeholder  Stakeholder feedback
interviews
www.eo-miners.eu
 What are the methods we use?

In situ measurements Airborne  Satellite imagery

and observations data acquisition
Integration of satellite, airborne and in situ monitoring tools and methods

www.eo-miners.eu
 What are the methods we use?

• Ground monitoring networks
• Airborne imaging  • Conventional optical 
• In situ point measurements 
spectroscopy  sensors: Landsat Thematic 
(temperature, pH,…)  (hyperspectral)  Mapper, ASTER
• Field spectroradiometry surveys • Very high resolution optical 
campaigns (VNIR, SWIR, TIR)
• Airborne geophysics :  sensors, such as Ikonos, 
• Information and/or  radiometric,  Quickbird, WorldView_II, 
measurements about  electromagnetic,  SPOT 5
vegetation, soil, groundwater 
aeromagnetic • Radar sensors
and dust  • Thermal infrared 
• Chemical Model and 3D (multi and broad 
characterization of the  band)
contaminated soils • LIDAR

In situ  Airborne  Satellite imagery

measurements data acquisition
Integration of satellite, airborne and in situ monitoring tools and methods

www.eo-miners.eu