Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The aim of this research program is to understand how some of the world's largest nickel-copper-platinum deposits in Canada, China, and Russia have formed, in order to aid in the discovery of new deposits. Each project includes detailed mapping of field exposures, logging of diamond drill cores, examinations of the rocks using light optical and electron optical microscopic techniques, analysis of the chemical and isotopic compositions of the ores and the rocks in which they occur, and mathematical models of the geochemical and fluid dynamic processes involved in their formation. The data and interpretations generated in this program will extend our knowledge of the processes involved in generating nickel-copper-platinum deposits, and the geological, genetic, and exploration models generated in the various projects will have broad applications and will aid in their exploration worldwide.