€8.3 million project launched to explore for green technology metals

19 October 2020: The iCRAG Centre at UCD is among a team of thirteen partners working on the €8.3 million GREENPEG project hosted by the University of Oslo. Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, GREENPEG is focussed on the development of new techniques to explore for battery and other green technology metals.

The multidisciplinary team from eight European countries, including universities, specialist exploration companies and exploration and mining companies will work on pegmatite rocks which can be particularly rich in technology metals but are often small and difficult to find with conventional exploration approaches

Dr Julian Menuge, Funded Investigator in iCRAG, Associate Professor in the UCD School of Earth Sciences, and lead on the GREENPEG prospect-scale methodology research said, “These raw materials are used in the manufacture of green energy devices such as energy storage, photovoltaic, wind turbine, and capacitor manufacturing. It is critical that Europe regains competitiveness in this sector to meet the ambitious 2030 energy and climate targets.”

The project will create exploration toolsets for European pegmatite ore deposits that carry lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) and niobium-yttrium-fluorine (NYF). It will use three active green and brownfield exploration and mining sites at Wolfsberg (Austria); South Leinster (Ireland); and Tysfjord (Norway) for its project work so that its industry partners will benefit immediately from the research.

The GREENPEG new approach and business plans aim to help integrate new products and services into its associated businesses, attract investment into the European raw materials sector and increase the competitiveness of European companies.

Professor Axel Müller, University of Oslo, the project leader, said: “ We are very excited to lead this project to develop advanced, efficient and ready-to-use exploration technologies for buried pegmatites and their associated green technology raw materials in an environmentally and economically sustainable way”.

For more information see www.greenpeg.eu. GREENPEG is funded by the Horizon Framework Programme of the European Union GAP 869274.