CMiO ANR-23-CE01-0017

As the world shifts away from fossil fuels and enters an energy and ecological transition associated to the expansion of digital technologies, Europe needs to produce enormous numbers of wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles, and batteries and to regain sufficient autonomy for a pervasive digitalization.

Consequently, the European demand for critical raw materials (CRM) will skyrocket .

Europe is facing a major challenge: securing access to CRM by increasing the resilience of the supply chain and building a sustainable low-carbon economy. Indium (In), gallium (Ga) and germanium (Ge) are used in the production of solar panels and are essential to electronics and digital technologies (semiconductors, transistors, etc.).

We are on the cusp of a critical metal boom and therefore, we need to address urgently our approach to exploration and mining of CRM, otherwise the looming supply shortage in the coming decades will lead to a range of geopolitical, economic, and environmental issues.

The overarching aim of this project is to locate the new critical minerals resources vital for Europe’s future low carbon economy. As a successful and socially acceptable Energy Transition and Green Deal rely on responsible sourcing, we will focus on two objectives:

• O1: find value in new CRM resources in known base ore deposits & mines by unravelling the secondary metamorphic and tectonic processes that play a key role in concentrating CRM
• O2: unlock CRM resources trapped in mine wastes and engage in the CRM circular economy

News

• 
  Coralie Siégel visited the CMiO team and UMR Geoscience Montpellier in January 2026
  From 5–9 January 2026, I visited Geosciences Montpellier as part of an initiative funded by the Australian Critical Minerals Hub to strengthen collaborations with French research teams working on critical … Continue reading →
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  Valentine Blumstein is back from her first conference, just a few months after starting her PhD
  Hello everyone, My name is Valentine Blumstein. A little over three months ago, I began working on a thesis supervised by Bénédicte and Magali. The main goal of my thesis … Continue reading →
• 
  Deta Gasser and Hanne Paulsen visited U Montpellier thanks to our PHC Aurora funding
  It has been an amazing week full of discussion about the VMS deposits of Norway studied within the framewor of Valentine Blumstein’s PhD thesis. From geodynamics of the Caledonides to … Continue reading →
• 
  Lison Moynier started her Post-Doc in collaboration with the Massif Central project of the PEPR Sous Sol !
  Today I am starting my first postdoctoral contract for a period of 1 year, combining my favorite topics (metallogeny and structural geology) and allowing me to reconnect with local geology, … Continue reading →
• 
  Paper alert: How can we define Orogenic Critical Metals ?
  What if the role of metamorphim and deformation has been underestimated in concentrating critical metals ? What if predictivity maps for exploring critical metals could be refined following metamorphic gradients … Continue reading →