Explorationsinitiative

Geoscientific projects supporting a resilient supply of critical and strategic raw materials.

The European Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) was enacted in Mai 2024. This initiative of the European Commission serves as a legislative basis for a resilient critical raw materials supply chain in Europe and aims to lower the dependency on imports from single country suppliers.

Commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Finance GeoSphere Austria will make a major contribution for Austria concerning the CRMA.

Within the framework of the Explorationinitiative projects under different topics will be accomplished in the Division Geophysical and Applied Geological Services: Condensation and interpretation of geoscientific surveys with relevance to raw materials in Austria, further development of methods, raw material specific studies, CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage)and deep geothermal energy. Cooperations with universities and the Austrian Mining Industrie play an important role.

In November 2024 four projects started with a duration of 1,5 years. Further projects will follow in the coming years.