Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The research concentrates on the Abitibi greenstone belt, a region of old volcanic rocks that span the Ontario Quebec border from Timmins to Chibugamau. This belt of volcanic rocks is the source of the gold, copper and zinc that is the economic lifeblood of the region. Research as established that the many volcanic units are separated by iron rich sediments that represent pauses in volcanism. The iron-rich sediments vary in their contained minerals and their chemistry. The chemistry of these rocks vary as a function of how close they are to copper and zinc mineralization. The research will focus on how to use the variations in chemistry to identify likely areas with new mineral deposits. A second project will build a 3-D model of this belt of volcanic rocks. The model willbe built using computer based techniques and will result in improved ability to predict where future mines lie. A third aspect to the project will be to understand the controls on the variations in volcanism and production of sedimentary rocks with time. This aspect of the project will examine greenstone belts in Canada and elsewhere to establish the controls on what types of volcanic and sedimentary rocks occur where.