Grant: Alliance Grants

Industrial metals such as zinc are fundamental to everyday life and have long been a significantcomponent of Canada's economy. With the increasingly urgent need to transition to a 'green' economy, and inresponse to heightened international geopolitical tensions, Canada and other countries have prepared 'criticalminerals' lists and have started to prioritise academic research that will facilitate the discovery of geopoliticallystable sources of critical minerals. Discovering new sources of 'green' metals in large quantities sufficient toenable the transition away from hydrocarbons will be challenging, because most of the readily discerned oredeposits at Earth's surface have already been identified; what is now required is a new perspective on how tolook for 'blind' deposits. Searching for new ore deposits is greatly facilitated by understanding why knowndeposits are where they are, and how and when they formed. The critical metal zinc, and many desirableassociated trace elements, forms ore deposits in sedimentary rocks. Studies of the nature of and controls onknown ore deposits in sedimentary-rock-hosted ore systems can help focus mineral exploration. This projectwill address the origin of Zn mineralisation in an undeveloped, poorly known Zn camp in NWT, Gayna River,whose unusual geological setting resembles that of Earth's highest-grade Zn deposit, Kipushi, in DemocraticRepublic of Congo. This work will contribute substantially to the understanding of how, when, and whycarbonate-hosted Zn systems develop, and to the conceptual foundations that will underlie mineral explorationin Zn districts during the transition into the green economy of the future.