The project "E-Merge, Multidisciplinary study of the Rio Grande Rise: Sustainable exploration of e-tech mineral resources” is approved by Finep (Financier of Studies and Projects), MCTI (Ministry of Science and Technology of Brazil). This project is the continuation of the completed FAPESP project “Marine E-Tech elements” (process 2014/50820-7). The proposal comprises a multidisciplinary research that integrates geology, geophysics, geochemistry, metagenesis, hydrography, microbiology, marine biology, metallurgy, political science, law and psychology in order to understand:

1) The local processes of formation of marine polymetallic deposits in the Rio Grande Rise (South Atlantic), with particular interest in “critical” raw materials (strategic metals such as cobalt, nickel, tellurium and rare earth elements), so called due to their growing economic importance and essential contribution for emerging technologies (green-economy) and new electronic technologies, which have a high economic impact due to the current scarcity of supply of elements and minerals called “e-tech minerals”.

2) The potential environmental and social impacts resulting from an potential extraction of e-tech mineral resources in the deep sea and the new low-carbon approaches to the recovery of e-tech elements.

This workshop meeting aims to discuss the new initiatives to be taken in terms of the data and samples obtained during previous projects. The event will provide a multidisciplinary approach to the understanding of deep-sea ferromanganese deposits. The meeting will also be open to external participants such as researchers, undergraduate, and graduate students as well as staff from government and private organizations. This workshop will be held for four days from 14th – 15th April 2025, following a program that will include:

(1) Lectures by renowned researchers on the exploration of the deep-sea ferromanganese deposits, especially from the Rio Grande Rise;

(2) Oral and poster presentations on completed and ongoing research under the thematic project; and

(3) Arrangements of working groups for the future research and new publications on data and samples.

The initiative of this event will be remarkable in the scenario of the great international significance of marine mineral deposits.