The 16th IAGOD Quadrennial Symposium, organised by the International Association on the Genesis of Ore Deposits (IAGOD), brought together more than 500 participants at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, from 30 August to 2 September. INESC TEC ran a workshop on spectroscopy and also presented two papers in this area.
The symposium is one of the leading international meetings in the fields of mineral deposits, mineral resources and geological prospecting. Under the theme ‘The Role of Geoscience in the Energy Transition’, the 2026 edition brought together people from academia, industry and the geoscience community, and featured scientific sessions, talks, workshops, field trips and technical activities.
INESC TEC was represented by researcher Diana Guimarães, who was accompanied by one of her master’s students, David Teixeira.
One of the Institute’s main contributions was the organisation of the workshop ‘Advanced Spectroscopic Techniques for Geological Applications’, run by Diana Guimarães, a researcher at INESC TEC, and Ricardo Ribeiro of Spotmine, a geoscience consultancy. The morning session covered the principles and geological applications of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), Raman spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging (HSI), all techniques for analysing the composition of rocks and minerals. In the afternoon, participants had the chance to apply these techniques to geological samples in a hands-on session.
Diana Guimarães also presented the paper ‘Towards Smart Mining with Multimodal Spectroscopy for Geological Applications’, in which she showcased the research carried out by INESC TEC on combining complementary spectroscopy and imaging techniques with machine learning methods and advanced visualisation tools. This multimodal approach aims to contribute to more integrated solutions for geological exploration and smart mining.
The programme also included the paper ‘Use of Portable LIBS Compared with ICP-MS Results in Lithium-Bearing Pegmatites’, presented by student David Teixeira and developed under the supervision of Diana Guimarães, in collaboration with Alexandre Lima, a lecturer at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto. The study analysed local calibration strategies applied to portable LIBS measurements in lithium-bearing pegmatites in the Barroso-Alvão region, using ICP-MS results as reference data.
Disclaimer: This article was translated by Claude.
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