Historic mine sites in Europe

Europe is largely dependent on raw materials imports and has to supply its needs, especially of critical raw materials, from international sources. Nevertheless, Europe also has a long lasting mining history and some deposits have been mined continuously even for hundreds of years. FRAME WP7 investigates traditional mining sites and their raw material potential. In addition to the main commodities of these historic deposits, the project focuses on strategic raw materials (SRM) such as e.g. high-tech metals extracted as by-products and critical raw materials of the EU actual list. These raw materials might be contained in the ore or in residues from the nowadays abandoned mining and beneficiation activities. The dataset contains examples of historic mines that might have a potential for CRM. Related case studies give detailed information on the sites. Please note: the dataset does not reflect a pan-European assessment, but examples and case studies.