Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières

History and origins

In 1959, the agency was established by a French decree. The BRGM is a product of the union of:

1. The BRGG (Bureau de recherches géologiques, géophysiques et minières, Eng: Geological, geophysical and mining research office). Established by Edmond Friedel and Pierre Pruvost in 1941, the BRGG was tasked with the mapping of French sub-surfaces, and
2. The BUMIFOM (Bureau minier de la France d'outre-mer, Eng: French Overseas territories mining office).

After its merger with the French geological survey in 1968 which latter was established in 1868 by Napoléon III, the BRGM was responsible for the surveying and publication of geologic maps of the French territory. The general public can freely consult the surveyed and published geological maps on the BRGM InfoTerre web portal, and as from 12 April 2010, on Android and iOS.

In 2002, the BRGM undertook a deep reconsideration of its corporate identity. The field of geology, geophysics and mining seemed too narrow a scope for its operations.

In the same vein, while responding to greater environmental problems such as water pollution, post-mining activities, natural risks, atmospheric carbon dioxide sequestration, waste management, environmental remediation and developing a climate of measurement systems and information, the BRGM adopted the signature, Géosciences pour une Terre durable ("Geoscience for a sustainable Earth") on 14 January 2003. Then, in 2004, the abbreviation, BRGM, became official.

The BRGM undertakes an in-house development of its method of governance, its quality assurance controls (including quality edits and environmental responsibility) by shaping its tasks, skills and funding to the evolutions of the establishment. This is also coordinated with its international scientific partners (81 projects carried out over the 2009-2012 period), including the promotion of international networks.

Chairpersons and departments: 1941 to present

Over the years, each of the BRGM chairmen have left their marks. Mergers highlighted the chairmanship of Roland Pré. These led to a re-organization of the BRGM. From 1960 to 1962, the BRGM assumed a large proportion of the employees of federal departments of mines and geology of French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa, and in 1961, a large part of the activities and personnel of the Department of Geological Surveys and Mines, French Guiana. Under the chairmanship of Pierre Signard, Roland Pré's successor, a technical and scientific center was established at Orléans-la-Source in 1965. This center was useful in unifying all the BRGM teams. He also continued the re-organization of the BRGM. In January 1968, the Geological Maps Office of France and in 1970, the Alsace-Lorraine Geological Survey (SGAL) came under the BRGM's umbrella. Under the management of Claude Beaumont, the term «Service géologique national» (SGN, en: National Geological Service) was introduced in the mining code. He appointed Claude Guillemin as Director of the SGN. It was also under his chairmanship that the BRGM took an international focus; notably the signing of a contract with the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia in 1964 to undertake a geologic and mining reconnaissance of the country.

A Petroleum and mineral resources crisis arose in 1973 and under the chairmanship of Yves Perrin, the BRGM expanded significantly while carrying out its task of supplying energy and minerals to France. This development placed the BRGM amongst the leading global petrol and mineral explorers. The Geothermy department was then created as a response to the need for renewable energy. In 1977, the subsidiary COFRAMINE was created in order to consolidate mining companies with BRGM shareholdings. Jean Audibert's term of office was marked by the global crisis and the quite depressed market for minerals and metals. Due to its inability to obtain sufficient financing, most of the mining projects were slowed down or abandoned, many were often sold to international mining groups, notably, Portuguese Neves-Corvo's copper and tin deposit that was sold to RTZ. This field is one of the biggest in Europe. Geothermal energy was developed in conjunction with the Agence française de la maîtrise de l'énergie (AFME, English: Agency for Energy Management, France), an agency that was established in 1982. The Compagnie française de géothermie (CFG, English: French Geothermal energy company) was established in 1984. On the other hand, at the initiative of the Ministry of Research, especially of Hubert Curien, a close acquaintance of Claude Guillemin, scientific activities were centered around a few big projects. Finally, in 1985, a department of research was created. Also, Gérard Renon placed more focus on the commercial services activities of the BRGM. When a department (named the "4S" in 1987) regrouping the teams working in both soil and sub-soil management was created, a better separation of tasks was established. Its main objective was to geographically redeploy the commercial activities of the BRGM.

The operational cost cutting crisis whereby it had to close several departments (geothermal energy, mineralogy, geotechnical department etcetera) came to an end in 1988 and was followed by a financial recovery. A policy of service activities development and labor cost cutting measures were introduced by Maurice Allègre. In 1990, its service activities became mature and thereby, eighty (80) persons were employed. On the other hand, mining activities were still on a stalemate. The chairmanship of Claude Allègre was notable for its strategic restructuring plan that was spearheaded by Jean-Pierre Hugon. The research and public-sector missions, along with the commercial and mining activities services, would eventually become subsidiaries. Engineering and consulting activities were handed over to the Antea Group in 1994. In the field of mining, the BRGM in association with Normandy, an Australian group, created the la Source Compagnie minière (SAS). This subsidiary was concerned with a major part of BRGM's mining activities. It was in the midst of these events that the court case dubbed affaire de la mine d'or de Yanacocha (English: the Yanacocha gold mine case) sprang up. This gold mine was discovered in 1980 by BRGM but was being exploited by an association comprising both local industries, North American companies and the BRGM. A legal complication ensured and the BRGM's right to the mine was lost to its associates even when the reserves in the discovered mine were important. In some ways, the chairmanship of Bernard Cabaret which took off with a formalization of the policies of business reforms which were not different from his predecessors. In fact, a decree published in 1998 placed the BRGM under the dual auspices of the Ministry of Research and the Ministry of Industry. This brought mining investments by the BRGM to an end and thereafter, the la Source Compagnie minière (SAS) was dissolved. Later, when the Antea Group was sold in 2003, all service activities came to an end. Thereafter, the BRGM was confined to the singular task of "National Geological Service" and had to reorient its focus towards the environment and natural risks. Research on geological storage of CO₂ was launched. With Yves Caristan as Executive Director, a forecasting department was opened in 2001 and its first defining contract was signed with the French state detailing a four-year mission and major policies. This practice was continued in 2005 and 2009. The BRGM acquired a new logo: Géosciences pour une Terre durable (English: Geosciences for a Sustainable Earth). The BRGM was now included amongst the industries that were under the jurisdiction of "page 187 of the Loi organique relative aux lois de finances (LOLF, English: organic laws relating to Finance laws)" of which the Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA, English: National Institute for Agronomic Research), the Institut de recherche pour l'ingénierie de l'agriculture et de l'environnement (CEMAGREF, English: National Institute for Research in Science and Technology related to Agriculture and the Environment), the Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (CIRAD, English: Center for International Cooperation for Developmental Agronomic Research), the Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer (IFREMER, English: French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea) and the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD, English: Institute for Developmental Research).

The appointment of Philippe Vesseron was marked, at the beginning of his tenure, by a modification of the decree formalizing new thematic directions of the BRGM by placing it under the supervision of the Ministry of Research, Industry and the Environment in 2004. Following the dissolution of the Charbonnages de France, as well as other public-sector mining companies (Iron, Potassium, etc.), the BRGM inherited and managed their old mining sites, but it had lost its capacity of developing mines. Then arose another fuel crisis and the geothermal energy department was reopened, thereby ensuring that the missions, respectively, of the CFG and the Géothermie Bouillante were sorted out. At the end of the year 2009, at the commencement of Jean-François Rocchi's tenure as chairman and chief executive, a new modification its establishing decree was concurrently carried out. made the BRGM responsible for establishing a school for applied Geosciences, the ENAG. In 2010, the Ministry responsible for sustainable development, which supervision includes that of the "Environment" and "Mines" of the BRGM, announced a relaunch of the mining policy on strategic metals.

At the middle of the year 2012, Jean-François Rocchi, whose tenure was short, reorganized the scientific functions of the BRGM with the aim of improving the definition of its missions and greatly improving its effectiveness by setting up six (6) operational departments (against the former ten (10)) along with a science and production directorate.

Objectives and missions

The objectives of the BRGM include understanding and identifying geological phenomena in order to develop adequate and responsive techniques to the environmental difficulties encountered in managing the soil, the subsoil, French mineral resources, post-mining safety, natural risks, soil pollution and climatic change. It also provides higher education through its school of engineering, the ENAG. Other principal objectives are to make scientific data publicly available, as well as methodologies and tools that will increase the understanding and management of the problems resulting from global warming and policies of territorial development.

Its activities and actions are determined by the Comité national d'orientation du service public (CNOSP, English: National Public Service Steering Committee), an umbrella body for various French ministerial departments. The outlines of this ministerial convergence were designed in 2001 through a quadrennial (4-year) program. Co-funding is provided to BRGM from the French Regional Council as well as the European Union (EU). Agencies with similar objectives as the BRGM, such as the Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR, English: National Agency for Research) or the Agence de l'environnement et de la maîtrise de l'énergie (ADEME, English: Environment and Energy Management Agency) form partnerships with the BRGM. It is also one of the 33 members of the Instituts Carnot.

According to the last four-year program of the BRGM, its basic objectives are:

The quadrennial program "Etat-BRGM 2009-2012" made the BRGM responsible for geological and mining sciences, institutional and collective expertise (with defined code of ethics) while providing answers to the challenges of mineral resources (securing supplies, training, etc.) and to sustainable development through improving responses to global changes (restoring and preserving groundwater, preventing geologic risks, securing the development of geological storage of CO₂, development through geothermal diversification, identification of aquifer resources) of which 14 out of 20 surveys have been completed. During this period, the BRGM has notably finalised the first pilot exploitation of geothermal heating using a technology called EGS (Enhanced Geothermal System). It has also developed a unified method of evaluating seismic vulnerability and an issue tracking systems. During 2009 to 2012, forty-eight percent (48%) of the activities of the regional offices was about water, but in certain areas, mining risks and/or industrial risks were the cause of concern, notably in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur (also known as PACA) regions where a platform for understanding major risks was established on 4 July 2012 and also in French Guiana where a research on climate change in French Guiana for the years 2030 and 2050 was simulated with the Direction régionale de l'environnement, de l'aménagement et du logement, (DREAL, English: Regional Directorate for Environment, Development and Housing) and Agence de l'environnement et de la maîtrise de l'énergie (ADEME, English: Environment and Energy Management Agency).

Monitoring and Forecasting

BRGM's mission statement is composed of three parts: monitoring, forecasting and economic intelligence.

It fulfils this responsibility by the publication of the following reviews for the benefit of its supervising ministry: the Ecomine (published since 1980); the Annuaire statistique mondial des minerais et métaux (AS3M) or also known as "World Mining and Metals Yearbook" which first edition appeared eighty (80) years ago. This yearbook monitors eighteen (18) metals by country and is published in association with Société de l'industrie minérale (SIM, English: Mineral Industry Association) The BRGM is also a part of the Comité pour les métaux stratégiques (COMES, English: Strategic Metals Committee). The COMES was established by decree of 26 January 2011 and is focused on four (4) working groups which were formed in March 2011, namely for:

1. The Identification and evaluation of the needs of French Industries.
2. The Marine and Land natural resources that can be exploited.
3. Development of savings in raw materials and recyclable products.
4. Transnational aspects as regards strategic metals.

The BRGM serves as the vice-chairman of groups 1 and 2.

Therefore, it has signed an agreement with ERAMET and Renault.

It also monitors the changes in the known and reported resources, including resources that have to be recycled like gallium, germanium, niobium, rare earth elements, beryllium, molybdenum, rhenium, selenium, tellurium, antimony, lithium, tantalum, graphite, and tungsten.

Parts of these reports have been published and publicly available.

Plans for the future are carried out through forecasting exercises, namely "BRGM Vision 2030" and mapping the network of its partners.

Areas of Expertise

The areas of expertise of the BRGM is evident in ten (10) fields of activities

Geology

As a "Service géologique national" (English: National geological service), the BRGM puts its expertise to work in improving geological knowledge concerning the soil and subsoils. It produces and disseminates geological information on the subsoil and surface features, through its research programs and geological and geophysical field studies for the benefit of governments, developers, manufacturers, and teachers, in France and globally.

It has established databases, paper-based and digital geological maps as well as 3D models, which are applicable in the management of water and mineral resources, for prevention of natural risks, in combating land pollution, for developing soil and subsoils, in the geological storage of CO₂ gas, the valorisation of French geological heritage, as well as other uses.

Geological Maps

The geological maps provides information to the general public on the nature of the rocks and geological faults which can be found in the subsoil of a region or a country.

Brief history: A need for a geological map of France goes back in time to a decree promulgated by Napoleon III, dated the First of October 1868, which established the "Service de la carte géologique de la France et des topographies souterraines" (English: The geologic map of France and groundwater topography service). The earliest geologic maps date back to 1664 (by Louis Coulon) and 1746 (by Jean-Étienne Guettard). Since 1794, the Corps des mines have been responsible for drawing up geological maps. Jean Baptiste Julien d'Omalius d'Halloy sketched the geology of the Parisian basin and it environs in 1816, scaling the map at 1/800 000. Ours-Pierre-Armand Petit-Dufrénoy and Jean-Baptiste Élie de Beaumont, who were both mining engineers, were charged with the task of drawing up the first French geological map in 1841, using a scale of 1 / 500 000.

The decree promulgated by Napoleon III on the First of October 1868 at Biarritz made it clear that the task of drawing up a French geological map would be done at the state's expense, thereby centralizing the task to the state, at least, where it concerns coordinating the surveyors and the publishing. Using its powers, the service undertook the work of bringing to light a geological map, using a scale of 1/80 000, which work was accomplished in 1925, about fifty (50) years later. It produced 268 maps. It continued until 1971 because it was publishing successive editions (about 600 sheets published). At the same time, another French geological surveying program, begun in 1913, was in place and it used a scale of 1/50 000. This mapping program produced 1060 maps of Metropolitan France. Its first sheets were published in 1925. In 1967, it released 148 maps when the decree of 22 December 1967 charged the BRGM with the task of drawing up the French geological map. Article 1 of the decree in fact mentions the geologic map: "In order to make knowledge of the subsoil available in a form that is adapted to the needs of users" and article 2 makes the BRGM responsible for: "facilitation, coordination and implementation of all necessary work for the establishment of the general geologic map", as well as: "publication, printing and distribution of these maps and all accompanying texts."

Current situation: This cartographic program also led to the publication of several works at the scale of 1/1 000 000 comprising several editions of the French map for the years 1889, 1905, 1933, 1955, 1968, 1996 and 2003 and at the scale of 1/250 000; these latter had incomplete coverage.

Since 2000, graphical images of scanned geological base maps using a scale of 1/50 000 has been a subject for national harmonization and is freely available to the public on the Infoterre site. This map can be seen as planar projections of intersection of geological formations with surface topography. The intersection geometry and the geological characteristics of the formations allow for an extrapolation of the volumes of rocks in three dimensions with depths that vary with the scale and density of the data, along with the degree of information. Pictures of the subsoil are often accompanied by very complex interpretations which rules took more than a century and a half to set: from the appearance of the first geological maps at the beginning of the nineteenth century, notably Georges Cuvier and Alexandre Brongnniart's cartography of the tertiary basins of Paris.

Currently available in more than 25 000 copies each year, the geological maps of France is an essential starting point on the geology of French territory and makes the management of risks, pollutions, water resources, and major developmental works possible. The traditional geologic maps are gradually enriched with data concerning surface and oil drilling, seismic data and also airborne geophysical data.

The 2011 geological map, the most current as of writing, is scaled at 1/50 000° and is made of 1060 collected maps and often contains old data. The last version took geologists sixty (60) years to complete. Along with the "banque de données du sous-sol" (BSS, literally: Subsoil database), this map is the defining point for mining and geologic know-how on France and is accessible on the iPhone through an app that can calculate ground profiles and do virtual drilling.

Development: Although this maps are heterogeneous, they are often incoherent. They can contain obsolete information derived almost exclusively from the surface, while industrialists and scientists are increasingly in need of constantly updated 3D numerical models describing, in depth, the geological layers and geological functions, hydrogeological, seismic, thermal and other functions.

Already, the BRGM has released the initial 3D geometrical representation of the French subsoil which includes chemical and physical parameters. It plans to switch over to a 3D digital model of geological maps. Therefore, these are the days of the "French Geological system of reference."

A "3D airborne" geophysical map for the overseas departments was begun at Mayotte, in 2011. Also, a follow-up project for groundwater monitoring and detection of organic contaminants (projects ORIGAMI and REMANTAS and project TIC EuroGEOSS). Project IEED GOEODENERGIES deals with technology of the subsoil for carbon-free energy or PLAT’INN (démonstrateur-plateforme de tri et recyclage de déchets comme source d’approvisionnement en métaux stratégiques, English: platform for demonstration of sorting and recycling of waste as a source of strategic metals) or Greenerb@t whose subject matter is the construction of more ecological and smarter buildings. Also, the BRGM is a participant in the IEE "Intelligent Energy-Europe program with the seventh PCERD along with geothermal energy development and other programs, such as: LABEX and EQUIPEX, the CARNOT (Actions de recherche pour la technologie et la société, English: Research Program for Technology and Industries) program of which IRSTEA (Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture, English: National Institute for Science and Technology Research for the Environment and Agriculture) is noteworthy, and the IFREMER-EDROME program, as well the Institut Carnot. The Carnot label was given it by the Ministry of Research in 2012, covers every institute which is concerned with research and development for economic development. As of writing, there are thirty-four (34) institutes so labelled. Finally, the CVT (Consortium de valorisation thématique, English: Thematic Enhancement Consortium) by the Allenvi (Alliance nationale de recherche pour l'environnement, English: National Alliance for Environmental Research) alliance.

The French Geological reference

New established geological references have been modernised through analytical methods and new information such as those from airborne geophysics that is based on radiometry and the earth's magnetism. These information are available on the Internet. They are supposed to incorporate thematic maps such as lithological maps, minerals, temporal maps etc. through principal geographic information systems (GIS) (e.g. ArcGIS, ArcGIS Server)

For this purpose, the RGF (Référentiel géologique de la France, English: French geological reference) program was launched in 2011. The development of this new reference work was meant to be collaborative, inter-university and eventually, multinational and should take several decades.

"InfoTerre" Catalogue

This catalogue has been publicly available on Infoterre. Since 2011, a map of regolith, a 3D diapir model of the Dax community in the Aquitaine region, new French Guiana(BSS) data, and the Upper Rhine Graben. These are maps of geothermal potential and temperature for areas which are interesting for the storage of CO₂ gas. Studies have also been conducted for the hazard mapping of asbestos at four (4) levels (1/125000 ° et 1/30 000° mappings) in the natural environment, making complete every available data for Upper Corsica, Loire-Atlantique and Savoie.

Mineral resources

The BRGM seeks the knowledge and control of mineral raw materials through: