Transport, Concentration, and Deposition of Precious Metals in Layered Gabbros During Continental Rifting

最近在东格陵兰始新世层状辉长岩中发现的金和铂族（PGE）矿化表明，与大陆裂陷向海洋裂陷过渡相关的物理和化学过程可以富集地壳中的贵金属。其中一个辉长岩，卡普爱德华霍尔姆杂岩，表现出与层状贵金属成矿有关的不寻常的特征组合。对这些过程的理解需要详细的野外、岩石学、同位素和化学分析，并结合对岩浆热液系统的热力学和输运特征的理论分析。该研究项目的长期计划包括使用这些技术为控制过程的本质提供新的见解：1)辉长岩结晶过程中的贵金属浓度；2)含辉长岩热液体系中贵金属的运移与沉积。研究的一个具体目标是评估各种可能解释该矿床特征的贵金属与硫化物的异常高比率的假设。研究东格陵兰辉长岩的成矿过程对了解贵金属的全球分布和制定未来的矿产勘探战略具有潜在的重要意义。目前的奖励将使他能够在制定实现长期目标的计划时开始。

Recent discoveries of gold and platinum group (PGE) mineralization in Eocene layered gabbros of East Greenland demonstrate that physical and chemical processes associated with the transition from continental to oceanic rifting can concentrate precious metals in the Earth's crust. One of these gabbros, the Kap Edvard Holm Complex, exhibits an unusual combination of features related to stratiform precious metal mineralization. An understanding of these processes requires detailed field, petrologic, isotopic, and chemical analyses, combined with theoretical analysis of the thermodynamic and transport characteristics of magma-hydrothermal systems. The long-term plans for this research program inviove using these techniques to provide new insights into the nature of processes controlling: 1) precious metal concentration during gabbro crystallization; and 2) precious metal transport and deposition in gabbro-hosted hydrothermal systems. A specific objective of the research will be evaluation of various hypotheses that may explain the unusually high ratio of precious metal to sulfide that is characteristic of this deposit. Investigation of the processes responsible for mineralization in the East Greenland gabbros is potentially of great importance to understanding the global distribution of precious metals and to formulating future mineral exploration strategies. The present award will enable him to get started while he is formulating a plan to achieve the long-term goals.