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，与从大陆裂谷到海洋裂谷过渡相关的物理和化学过程可以使贵金属富集在地壳中。 Kap Edvard Holm 杂岩就是这些辉长岩之一，它展现出与层状贵金属矿化相关的不同寻常的特征组合。 要了解这些过程，需要进行详细的现场、岩石学、同位素和化学分析，并结合岩浆-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涉及使用这些技术来提供对过程控制性质的新见解：1）辉长岩结晶过程中的贵金属浓度； 2）贵金属在辉长岩热液系统中的迁移和沉积。 该研究的一个具体目标是评估各种假设，这些假设可以解释该矿床特征中贵金属与硫化物的异常高比例。 对东格陵兰辉长岩成矿过程的调查对于了解贵金属的全球分布和制定未来的矿产勘探战略可能具有重要意义。 目前的奖项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.