ParisTech Review

BIO

Patrice Christmann is a geologist, specialized 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).

He is a member of the High-Level Group that steers the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials.

His areas of interest are public policies related to the sustainable management of natural resources and mineral raw materials economics.