Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Exploration geochemistry involves the collection, transport and analysis of numerous samples of various types (such as soils and vegetation). Because there are increasing restrictions on the size of samples and most samples are taken to detect deposits at depth, extracting the maximum information from each sample is imperative, thus requiring the development of sensitive techniques. The goal of this collaborative research effort between the Departments of Chemistry and Geological Sciences at Queen's University and Anglo American plc (AAplc) is to gain an understanding of how metals move up from under-cover ore deposits, so as to enable the design of an efficient geochemical exploration method to locate buried ore deposits. To this end, several methods will be used, refined or developed to (1) identify and quantify the metal-containing species that are originally present in the sample, (2) identify and quantify the mobile metal-containing species that are released by leaching the sample with water or out-gassed by the sample at ambient temperature, and (3) identify and quantify the metal-containing species that are released by the sample upon heating. Because available instruments can barely detect several elements of interest, several novel simple strategies will first be implemented to improve their detection capabilities. The use of samples of known origin, both near and away from various under-cover ore deposits, will enable the identification of unique compounds, suite of elements and specific isotopes that are indicative of these under-cover ore deposits. This collaboration will benefit Queen's through new basic and applied research directions, operating support for their analytical laboratories, salary support for post-doctoral fellows and students, and publication of basic research results. AAplc will benefit from new analytical techniques that they can successfully use for more effective geochemical exploration. Canada will benefit from the simple strategies that can readily be implemented in all government, academic and industrial laboratories to enhance their detection capabilities and, in turn, improve the quality of their results.