Dynamic participation of EAGME in the RawMat 2023 Conference

The International Conference on Raw Materials and Circular Economy titled “RawMat2023 – 2nd International Conference on Raw Materials and Circular Economy – ‘Raw Materials: setting the foundations for the Green Transition’” was successfully completed at the Zappeion Megaron, attracting over 450 delegates from 31 countries.

The RawMat2023 Conference was organized by the School of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens and the Technical Chamber of Greece, with the Hellenic Authority for Geological and Mineral Research (EAGME) among the co-organizers.

The conference focused on topics such as mineral exploration, mining, processing, and innovative methods and practices for the sustainable exploitation of mineral raw materials.

It is worth noting that during the conference, the Deputy Minister of Energy, Ms. Alexandra Sdoukou, highlighted the leading role of EAGME in designing and implementing targeted programs under the new programming period of NSRF 2021–2027, with a budget exceeding €4.5 million. These programs focus on public mineral exploration in Greece and the development of national mineral exploration programs for critical and other raw materials (CRMs), which constitute a key priority.

Within the framework of the conference, which featured more than 220 presentations, EAGME participated with seven presentations. In addition to the presentation on EAGME’s contribution to the research of strategic and critical raw materials and the application of circular economy principles by Mr. Konstantinos Laskaridis, Director of Mineral Resources and Mining and National Representative of EAGME to EuroGeoSurveys, the remaining presentations focused on topics such as mineral exploration, assessment of extractive waste potential for critical raw materials, geophysical methods, and mineral exploration in natural stones.

The seven EAGME presentations at the RawMat 2023 Conference were as follows:

1. The contribution of H.S.G.M.E. to the research of strategic and critical raw materials and the application of the circular economy, by K. Laskaridis, Director of Mineral Resources and Mining and National Representative of H.S.G.M.E. at EuroGeoSurveys.
2. Assessing CRM’s content of abandoned mine sites of Greece, by Vassiliki Angelatou, Athanasios Exikis, and Adamantia Hatziapostolou.
3. Mineral exploration at the Kimmeria Fe-skarn deposit, N. Greece: Reassessment and new perspectives focusing on the CRMs, by Michalis Fitros, Constantinos Mavrogonatos, Marianthi Anastasatou, Adamantia Chatziapostolou, Konstantinos Laskaridis, Petros Karmis, Magdalini Aggeli, Dimitrios Tsouvalas, Alexandros Liakopoulos, Dimitrios Tarenidis, and Vasiliki Angelatou.
4. First study of microbial diversity living at Nisyros volcano extreme environment – Future applications, by Vassiliki Angelatou, Stefano Fazi, Franco Tassi, Orlando Vaselli, and Georges Vougioukalakis.
5. Piloting the establishment of soil geochemical baselines for Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) in Greece – Preliminary results from Attica and Boeotia, by Artemis Kontomichalou, Alexandros Liakopoulos, Ariadne Argyraki, Zacharenia Kypritidou, Fotini Botsou, and Antonis Vlastos.
6. Effect of freeze–thaw cycles on the flexural strength of Greek natural stones, by Konstantinos Laskaridis, Angeliki Arapakou, Michael Patronis, Christos Papatrechas, and Ioannis Kouseris.
7. The Controlled-source Audio-frequency Magnetotellurics (CSAMT/AMT) method tested in the search for deep Fe-skarn mineralization at Kimmeria, Xanthi, N. Greece, by Petros Karmis, Magdalini Angeli, Dimitrios Tsouvalas, Constantinos Mavrogonatos, Michalis Fitros, Marianthi Anastasatou, Adamantia Chatziapostolou, and Konstantinos Laskaridis.