Wednesday, 1 April, 2026
Knowledge Hub
Isotope science
for every audience
This hub brings together high-level introductory articles on isotope geochemistry and its applications. Each article answers a concrete question, without assuming any prior scientific background.
Pillar 1
Identifying contamination
01
Pillar 1
How to identify the origin of metal pollution?
Methods, tracers and protocols for tracing contamination back to its source in water, soils or sediments.
02
Pillar 1
How to distinguish a natural source from an industrial one?
Why two sources of lead or arsenic produce distinct chemical signatures, and how to read them.
03
Pillar 1
What is an isotopic signature, and why is it unique?
The isotopic fingerprint of a material, how it forms, and why it is virtually impossible to falsify.
04
Pillar 1
Can contamination be traced back to its source years later?
The conditions under which an isotopic investigation remains feasible long after the contamination event.
Pillar 2
Critical materials traceability
05
Pillar 2
How to certify the geographic origin of an ore or metal?
Why every deposit has a unique signature, and how comparison against a reference database certifies declared origin.
06
Pillar 2
What is isotopic traceability of supply chains?
How physical verification complements documentary traceability in ways that documents alone cannot provide.
07
Pillar 2
How to detect fraud in critical raw materials?
What isotopy detects that classical chemistry cannot, and the sectors most exposed to this type of fraud.
08
Pillar 2
Isotopes and regulatory compliance: what the Critical Raw Materials Act requires
What the CRMA 2024 concretely demands in terms of traceability, and how isotopy meets those requirements.
Pillar 3
Remediation & environment
09
Pillar 3
How to model contaminant behaviour in groundwater?
Conservative and reactive tracers, adsorption and oxidation processes, and the path from field data to predictive model.
10
Pillar 3
What is a contaminated mining site, and how is it characterised?
Types of mine waste, steps in an isotopic characterisation, and the importance of source attribution for prioritising remediation.
11
Pillar 3
Natural vs anthropogenic arsenic: how to tell them apart?
Sulphur, iron and antimony isotopes as proxies for tracing arsenic in mining-impacted environments.
12
Pillar 3
Isotopic fractionation: why transforming a metal leaves a fingerprint
Equilibrium and kinetic fractionation, state of the art on antimony, and implications for field data interpretation.
Pillar 4
Isotope science
13
Pillar 4
What is a stable isotope, and how does it differ from a radioactive one?
Atomic structure, the stable/radioactive distinction, and why traceability relies exclusively on stable isotopes.
14
Pillar 4
Why are isotopes tracers?
The two fundamental properties: variability between geological sources, and preservation through physicochemical transformations.
15
Pillar 4
Which elements are used in isotopic traceability?
From well-established lead to emerging antimony: a comparative table of tracer elements, their maturity and fields of application.
16
Pillar 4
From measurement to diagnosis: how an isotopic analysis works from A to Z
The 5 complete steps: field sampling, clean-room preparation, MC-ICP-MS, data processing, interpretation.