The laboratory activities are highlighted into two large areas of earth sciences and earth engineering:

- sustainable exploitation and management of geological resources and

- geo-environmental engineering.

The first sub-area spreads from the detection, exploration and characterization of natural geo-resources to its sustainable usage and processing of raw ores. This means laboratorial support to the following areas of knowledge: Geophysical Prospection, Geotechnics, Resources Appraisal, Mining Exploitation and Ore Processing.

The second sub-area includes physical, chemical and biological laboratory support for diagnosis of environmental contaminations, specially soil and groundwater, as well as the application of sustainable remediation technologies.