ProMine: A 3 &4 D Modelling European Project to Booster Exploration of Undiscovered Deep Subsurface Mineral Resources.

@inproceedings{WeihedGM2010,
 abstract = { European countries have an 11 billion € annual trade deficit in metal and mineral imports. Although most European major outcropping mineral deposits have been discovered in mature metalliferous regions, it is expected that extension of known mineral deposits to depth will reveal new resources in the future. Partially supported by funding under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union, project ProMine (Nano-particle products from new mineral resources in Europe) undertakes to revive exploration and extractive industries in Europe. It was decided to estimate the favourable geological conditions for new resources below surface down to mineable depth. Specialists thought realistic to anticipate estimated increased resources by up to 50% in individual mature belts by building advanced detailed robust predictive 4D computer geomodels, especially for new commodities such as high-tech metals and industrial minerals in existing deposits. Four potential metalliferous belts where undiscovered deep subsurface mineral resources are thought to exist have been selected, including: Fennoscandia and the Foresudetic, the Iberian, and the Hellenic belts. This has never been done before in Europe at a semi-regional scale.
This paper aims at presenting the general methodology used to integrate geological and geophysical data together with deposit modelling and 3D modelling databases that will be developed for hard rock resources in the gOcad environment. It is articulated around an advanced interoperability data base model developed by TU Freiberg (SFA structures to handle solids, Sgrid, Voxet) and software architecture (Communication using on OGC standards GML, GeoSciML; WFS Client such as Gocad-plugin; and database e.g. PostgreSQL+ PostGIS). One of the main issues is the format and structure compatibility between various modelling software systems used in the mineral industry. 3D-models case studies chosen among the selected four belts will be presented to illustrate the methodology. },
 author = { Weihed, Par AND Royer, Jean-Jacques AND Schaeben, Helmut AND Caumon, Guillaume AND Collon, Pauline AND Gaal, Gabor },
 booktitle = { Proc. 30th Gocad Meeting, Nancy },
 title = { ProMine: A 3 &4 D Modelling European Project to Booster Exploration of Undiscovered Deep Subsurface Mineral Resources. },
 year = { 2010 }
}