Grant: Canada Research Chairs

The transition to green technologies to mitigate climate change will drive an increase in demand of critical and strategic minerals (copper, lithium, rare earth elements). Canada is a world leader in the minerals and mining sector, but as much of it is underexplored due to glacial cover and mineralization (ore deposits) is harder to find, new exploration tools need to be developed. Indicator minerals, recovered from glacial sediments, indicate the bedrock (provenance) and are used to vector towards mineralization hidden at depth. Geochemistry is a powerful tool to understand how and where ore deposits form (petrogenesis). Improving both aspects are critical for ore deposit targeting and will increase exploration success rates for the Canadian industry. The Chair aims to develop innovative indicator mineral methodologies for a variety of ore deposits hosting critical and strategic minerals. Apatite (a calcium phosphate mineral) is the main focus because its trace element content records unrivalled petrogenetic and provenance information. Recent studies reveal the potential of apatite chemistry to identify some of the different types of ore deposits and unmineralized rocks. However, to use apatite for exploration, a wider variety of rock types (mineralized and unmineralized), especially those under-represented, needs to be addressed. The objectives of the Chair are to 1) develop innovative petrogenetic and provenance indicator mineral tools for a wide variety of mineralized and unmineralized rocks; 2) build a world’s first comprehensive global database of apatite chemistry; 3) apply the new exploration tools to vector towards known deposits, hosting critical and strategic minerals, using detrital apatite in glacial sediments. The Chair will use a petrogenetic approach to improve our understanding of trace element behaviour in apatite from diverse geological settings (in terms of magma/fluid compositions, redox conditions) in order to improve fingerprinting of apatite for exploration. Innovative analytical advances in laser ablation ICP-MS will be used to combine trace elements with microtextural mapping of apatite (to reveal zoning, alteration) and age (geochronology) of apatite to produce novel exploration tools. Identification of potentially economic terrains will be achieved by increasing the ‘footprint’ of mineralization recorded by apatite of the ore itself (ore discrimination tool) to the associated igneous rocks (provenance and tectonic setting).