Sustainable Economic Geology of Critical Minerals for the Clean Energy Transition

Economic geology plays a central role in the global transition toward low-carbon energy systems by providing the scientific and technical foundations necessary to identify, extract, and manage critical minerals. These minerals—including lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earth elements, and platinum group elements—are indispensable to clean energy technologies such as electric vehicles, wind turbines, and batteries. Yet, their limited availability, concentrated supply chains, and the environmental impacts of mining present major research and policy challenges. Advances in geospatial analytics, isotopic geochemistry, and structural geology have recently improved exploration targeting, while innovations in sensor technology and machine learning have fostered new predictive models for deposit discovery. However, there is an urgent need to integrate these approaches into a sustainable, economically viable framework that also addresses resource efficiency, ecological stewardship, and circular use of materials.This Research Topic aims to advance the field of economic geology by promoting multidisciplinary approaches to the sustainable discovery, characterization, and management of critical mineral resources. It encourages research that combines classical geological techniques with digital innovations such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and remote sensing to enhance exploration efficiency and reduce environmental impacts. Furthermore, the topic seeks to foster insights into how mineral deposits evolve under different tectonic and geochemical regimes and how these processes can inform global resource strategies. Key questions include: What geological indicators improve localization of critical mineral deposits? How can digital technologies optimize exploration and extraction efficiency? And what role does resource governance play in supporting an ethically and environmentally balanced mineral economy?To gather further insights into sustainable economic geology for the energy transition, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Geological and geochemical exploration models for critical minerals• Integration of remote sensing, GIS, and geostatistics in mineral prospectivity mapping• AI and machine learning applications for mineral system identification and resource assessment• Environmental and economic sustainability frameworks for critical mineral extraction• Supply chain resilience and circular economy models within economic geology• Policy, governance, and market dynamics shaping critical mineral development• Case studies linking mineral endowment to regional and national energy strategies Topic editors: R G Rejith, M A Mohammed Aslam, M Sundararajan, Jonathan Muthuswamy Ponniah Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82750/sustainable-economic-geology-of-critical-minerals-for-the-clean-energy-transition