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Plenary Speaker
Dr. Patrice Christmann
BRGM – Direction de la Statégie (France)
Short Biography:
Patrice Christmann is a geologist, specialised in economic geology. He owns a Ph.D. in geosciences obtained in 1979 from the University of Grenoble (France) and a master level degree from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris, obtained in 1993. During his studies he worked as a junior geologist with the Ministry for natural resources of Québec (Canada), and did his field work on the Copper Cliff Cu-Au deposit, near Chibougamau in preparation of his Ph.D. He entered BRGM in 1977, and worked eight years in geological mapping and mineral exploration in Iran and Yemen. In its International Directorate, which he joined in 1985, he managed project development in several world regions. From 1997 to 2000 he worked three years as a seconded national expert with the European Commission (DG Development), in Brussels, in the mineral resources domain. He returned to Brussels a second time from 2004 to 2009, as the Secretary-General of EuroGeoSurveys, the Association of 33 European geological surveys. He then returned to BRGM to become the head of its Mineral Resources department.
Since September 2010 he is deputy director of BRGM's Corporate strategy directorate, in charge of BRGM's mineral resources strategy. In this position he coordinates BRGM's contribution to the French committee on strategic metals and to the European Commission's raw materials initiative.
Since June 2010, he is a member of the UNEP International Resources Panel (www.unep.org/resourcespanel). His areas of interest are public policies related to the sustainable management of natural resources and mineral raw materials economics.
Abstract:
Mineral resources are essential to society and to sustainable development. Seen from a European perspective their steady supply to the economy cannot be taken as granted as the European Union is heavily dependent on imports of these resources from outside its borders, The talk will, from an European perspective, introduce the challenges ahead and the questions science will have to address in the coming years, from a sustainability perspective. An introduction to some ongoing developments, at national, European and global level will be presented such as the European Union Raw Materials Initiative and its forthcoming 2014-2020 “Horizon 2020” Research and Technological Development Programme as well as the activities of the U.N. International Resource Panel.