The MINATURA2020 project, a consortium of 24 partners from 19 European countries, is focusing on the key issue of competing land-uses. It seeks to contribute to the improvement of planning processes with a view to integrating spatial and mineral planning so as to avoid the sterilisation of nationally, internationally and locally important minerals by other developments, thereby safeguarding present and future access to mineral resources or expediting its extraction to allow other land-uses to follow.

The project has organised its final conference on 10 November 2017 (9:00 am – 13:00 pm) in the framework of the European Commission’s Raw Materials Week. The aim of the conference was to strengthen the trans-European cooperation between stakeholders, to share information and to discuss the practical implementation of the developed framework and guidance relating to Mineral Deposits of Public Importance. 

The MINATURA2020 final conference intended to provide a forum for an interactive stakeholder consultation. The main topics to be discussed were:

1. The concept of safeguarding
2. The proposed process for the delineation of Mineral Deposits of Public Importance (MDoPI)
3. The ‘joint Vision’ and further actions by the European Commission