Raw Materials

The European International Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Resource Management (ICE SRM EU) will be a capacity building and knowledge centre supporting the United Nations Classification Framework (UNFC) and United Nations Resource Management System (UNRMS), which will aim to fulfil the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) by integrating information on the availability of natural resources and building strong EU-level expertise on Critical Raw Materials (CRM) intelligence.

The ICE SRM EU will operate as a network of partners and experts with headquarters that facilitate and support the network and its activities, such as promotion and capacity building, including related methodological and technical activities, and relevant databases.

The main objectives of the ICE SRM EU are:

• Establishing a common understanding of practical UNFC reporting of historic information and a system of continuous updating when new information become available
• Expanding the usage of UNFC concepts from mineral raw materials to other domains such as energy (geothermal, solar, wind), water, extractive industry residues such as tailings, stockpiles, and waste rocks
• Identification and inclusion of key actors to build a strong, reliable network
• Developing and maintaining a European Network for UNFC experts on mineral resources of all commodities (e.g., metals, industrial minerals, construction raw materials) in terrestrial and marine environments from primary and secondary sources
• Identifying and managing a network of experts for capacity building and expertise
• Building a network of experts to support EC expertise in the field of resource management
• Educating and training practitioners and stakeholders according to the UNFC model, specifically the collection, usage, and visualisation of data
• Identifying and managing a network of partners to supply relevant data
• Providing support to UNFC and UNRMS related data and information on technical (information technology) at expert level
• Identifying why data gaps in the geographical coverage of Europe exist, and seeking to overcome those that lay within the responsibility of GSEU project partners
• Capacity building and promotion to minimise gaps in the geographical coverage of Europe
• Extending activities to countries neighbouring the EU

GSEU/ ICE SRM EU UNFC Trainings

The main aim and focus of the trainings is to support critical raw material initiatives (CRM Act) to classify projects using UNFC and establish project inventories across Europe.

A program of systematic capacity building ensures that synergies are retained between the EU Member States and data on raw materials are collected consistently, and are of the required quality, across Europe. The development of UNFC capacity within the  ICE SRM EU serves to facilitate and improve the handling and understanding in particular to: 

• the further development of UNFC classified inventories across Europe that are consistent with the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) for mineral resources;
• the comparability in national resource reporting, in particular the way resource quantities are classified according to UNFC and linked to different EU instruments, such as INSPIRE.

The ICE SRM EU is taking a step-by-step approach to increase the necessary capacity in all related areas, starting with CRM.

Trainings use the three level approach, from General principles for everyone in Level 1 training, through User need specifics for practitioners in Level 2 training, to Qualification for trainers at Level 3 training. Our first target group were experts who were trained to become trainers. 

Level 1 – General principles (suitable for everyone)

Topics:

• Ensuring necessary UNFC background
• Providing an overview on
  • Dataset requirements
  • Reporting standards
  • Driver needs and expectations in line with CRMA

Training materials - Level 1 are available here.

Level 2 – User need specifics (suitable for practitioners, builds up on Level 1 training)

Topics:

• Using and developing bridging documents
• Reporting in line with CRMA requirements
• Case specific hands-on exercises
• Exercise on using the UNFC templates

Training materials - Level 2 are available here.

Level 3 – Qualification (suitable for trainers, builds up on Level 2 training)

Topics:

• Clearing up open issues
• Handling data and issues on data coherently
• UNFC data outputs in accordance with CRMA
• Develop responses for Q&A
• Hand-on exercise / presentations and discussions on trainees findings

Training materials - Level 3 are available here.

Please contact [email protected] for more information about the trainings.

UNFC promotion and education activities implemented by the ICE SRM EU experts:

• Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) organised the UNFC webinar for industry and administration (12/7/2024) 
• George Hadjigeorgiou (GSD Cyprus) held a Presentation of UNFC update 2019 (June 2023) 
• Cyprus Geological Survey Department (GSD) conducted eight trainings:
  • Cyprus Geological Survey Department’s personnel trainings: Level 1: 24 & 25/9/2024, Level 2: 15 & 16/10/2024 and Level 3: 19 & 20/11/2024
  • Training of Government Service’s personnel: Level 1&2: 26/9/2024
  • Private sector and geologist training: Level 1&2: 10/10/2024
• The State Commission on Minerals Reserves of Ukraine organised the conference "Subsoil use in Ukraine. Prospects for investment" (7-11/10/2024) with the UNFC workshop
• Direcção-Geral de Energia e Geologia (DGEG - Mining Authority) from Portugal successfully conducted a three day UNFC training program in Portuguese for DGEG on 5, 7 & 10/2/2025
• Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) organised a 2-day workshop for administration - public authorities in December 2024. Further workshops are forseen in April and September 2025.
• Geological Survey of Belgium and the Flemish Department of Environment are organising a UNFC workshops to support implementation of the CRMA: UNFC Basics on 30/4/2025, UNFC Advanced 1 on 7/5/2025 and UNFC Advanced 2 on 14/5/2025.
• Public PERC Standard workshop is going to take place on Friday, 25/4/2025, at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, registration and more information here.