New paper out in special Rare Earth issue of Minerals
In this paper we quantify gains and losses of critical elements during late-magmatic hydrothermal alteration of eudialyte in the Ilimaussaq complex, Greenland. By microdrilling the alteration products of eudialyte – the primary host for REE, Zr and Nb – we found that certain metals (particularly those just mentioned) may be more mobile in the hydrothermal environment than we previously thought.
The alteration led to significant losses in Rare Earths and other High Field Strength Elements, and small gains in Large Ion Lithophile Elements (Rb, Th, U). We suspect that the elements that were removed from eudialyte by the fluids re-precipitated elsewhere in the rock. As such we infer that the alteration did not significantly influence the overall ore grade of the deposit. However, it does influence the ease by which we can extract the metals from the rock, as the metals are now hosted in a plethora of fine-grained intergrowths of secondary minerals. This has important implications for ore potential and mineral processing schemes of eudialyte-hosted ores, if we are to exploit these as a future source for green-technology metals.
The paper is the result of an MSc project by Mathijs van de Ven, who graduated with distinction at the VU University Amsterdam in 2018, and is currently working as an exploration geologist at RSC Mining & Mineral Exploration in New Zealand.
See here for a new 2019 quarterly update of A-team activities at St Andrews
New Ilímaussaq isotope paper in Lithos
Dating agpaitic rocks: A multi-system (U/Pb, Sm/Nd, Rb/Sr and 40Ar/39Ar) isotopic study of layered nepheline syenites from the Ilímaussaq complex, Greenland, Lithos. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2018.10.037
Happy to announce that the last paper of my PhD is now published in Lithos. In this paper we investigate how late-magmatic fluid reactions affect initial isotopic ratios of different minerals and how this affects the accuracy of isochron age dating for peralkaline rocks.
Find a link to the paper here.
Blog
Below is a link to a guest blog I wrote with Dr. Will Hutchison for the EGU Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology website.
The Fractional Crystallization Freak Zone
Will is a fellow postdoctoral researcher here at St Andrews. He studies active volcanoes and ancient magma chambers, and is currently working on the roof zones of alkaline magmatic systems in Greenland, as part of the Horizon2020 funded HiTech AlkCarb consortium.
Click here for the HiTechAlkCarb, website and blogs
