Mineral resources have always constituted an important sector of economic activity, without which our daily environment would be different, so much so that metals and mineral materials - ceramics, glass, cement, pigments, etc. - have been components of our civilizations since their origins. - have been part and parcel of our civilizations from the very beginning. Recently, questions have been raised about the finite nature of available reserves, with media coverage of crises involving critical metals in particular. Against a backdrop of steadily diminishing resource quality and foreseeable increases in raw material prices over the long term, the concept of sustainability has come to the fore: recycling, secondary raw materials and the valorization of by-products and certain wastes have thus come to complete the traditional landscape.
This symposium will provide an opportunity to present the state of scientific knowledge in four key areas: customer-supplier relations, the sustainability of mineral resources, the rational exploitation of mineral resources while controlling environmental impacts, and the human context. It will address subjects as varied as the environmental and societal impacts of mineral resource exploitation, the evolution of concepts on the formation of mineral deposits and their development, the disruption of major socio-economic balances or the sharing of the fruits of the resource - all areas of knowledge that make this field a unique field of observation of our planet.