Introduction

Reasonable and durable exploitation or mineral and energetic resources is one of the main challenge for the future of humanity and of the Earth. Addressing these scientific and society issues requires a global knowledge and understanding of element transfers through geological processes such as magmatism and hydrothermalism at depth and weathering, erosion and sedimentation at the surface. Reaching this goal necessitates a multidisciplinary approach integrating scales from the lithosphere to the mineral. We also believe that in order to make progress on issues related to exploitation of natural resources and their impact on the Environment, at the crossroads between fundamental and applied research, implies the development of a network at the interface between Academia and Industry with researchers having diverse and complementary motivations and expertise.

Missions and research themes

The first aim of FALCoL is to formalize and strengthen a more than ten year long collaborative effort joining Australian and French academic and industrial partners on research projects targeting different stages of the evolution of the lithosphere and of the continental crust from the Archean to the Phanerozoic in order to evaluate the impact of geological processes from the deep Earth to the critical zone (geosphere-hydrosphere-biosphere interface). FALCoL has also the ambition to expand ongoing collaborations between participants to a growing team of partners by structuring a network to stimulate discussions and open new routes for future research on the following topics:

•  Mantle-crust transfers, lithosphere construction and crustal growth-recycling

See photo below : Peridotite boudin in greenstones

• Crustal differentiation linked to magmatic and hydrothermal systems

See photos below : Migmatitic TTG San Pedro, Ivory Coast ; Tonalitic gneiss, San Pedro, Ivory Coast

• Magmatic-hydrothermal transfers and mineral systems

See photo below : Sulfurs in leucosome

• Transfers within the critical zone from primary to secondary ore deposits and impact on the Environment

See photos below : Granitic chaos, Rehoboth Namibie ; Gneiss – Laterite transition San Pedro Ivory Coast

NETWORK ACTIVITIES AND EXPECTED RESULTS

FALCoL is complementary to (i) the LithoSud GDRI (IRD), which corresponds to a North-South network of scientists and dedicated to the formation of the continental lithosphere of the southern hemisphere, (ii) the Labex Ressources 21 held by Université de Lorraine and embracing mineral systems and environmental impacts of mining activities, (iii) the WAXI and SAXI projects funded by a consortium of mining companies with the goal to build a synthesis of geological and geophysical data at the scale of the West African and Guiana cratons, respectively.

The strategy of FALCoL is to offer a space for discussion, valorize existing datasets, support mobility of researchers and students and organize a yearly workshop involving the different partners of FALCoL enlarged to other internationally recognized researchers. During these workshops, the different stages and scales of transfers across the different Earth reservoirs will be treated. Each workshop will be devoted to specific scientific questions and will be fed by reports on different case studies. These discussions will allow to define the state of the art but also to identify debated issues and lead to the elaboration of new projects involving all the facets of mass transfer associated with Earth dynamics.

institutions and laboratories involved

France

UMR 5563 Géosciences Environnement Toulouse (GET) (CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse 3, IRD).
UMR 7359 GeoRessources (CNRS, Université de Lorraine)

Australia
Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET) (University of Western Australia, Perth)
Mineral Resources, Kensington WA (CSIRO)

Migmatitic TTG San Pedro, Ivory Coast

Granitic chaos, Rehoboth Namibie

Meet the FALCoL TEAM