Preface: State of the art in mineral exploration

1 Mineral exploration for a sustainable future Minerals that comprise raw materials for energy, metal, construction and other industrial applications are considered strategic commodities, fundamental in stock markets worldwide, and key ingredients to sustain our ever more technology-based society (Wellmer et al., 2019). The utilization of such economically important minerals has shown a continued steady increase since the early twentieth century, with a greater focus in recent years on resources required for the development of renewable technologies, such as wind and solar operations, and for electrification of domestic and transportation systems (e.g. concrete, aluminium, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, zinc or rare earths) (Meinert et al., 2016). Geochemistry, vector ores VMS Iberian Pyrite Belt (Spain) 2.1 Seismic methods Like many other exploration techniques, seismic imaging (seismic reflection in particular) applications were developed for the oil and gas industry, and their uses in resource exploration have been conventionally limited to the exploration for hydrocarbons or other types of reservoirs (Alcalde et al., 2013, 2021; Ikelle and Amundsen, 2018; Sena-Lozoya et al., 2020). In spite of the challenges related to the ground conditions and access, resulting in significant surface wave content, the processing applied allowed obtaining a good 3D image of the two main faults that determine the structural configuration of the Blötberget mining area.