Chlorine isotopes in hydrothermal systems and the global Cl cycle

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The total value of all mining and mineral processing industries was $31.9 billion in 2009 (Natural Resources Canada 2011). Therefore, the mining industry is a significant contributor to the Canadian economy and their exploration and development of mineral deposits can have a significant economic and societal impact in remote areas with no other significant industry such as in Canada's North. This proposal is concerned with studying a range of hydrothermal mineral deposit types that form from large volumes of hot saline fluids at different temperatures and pressures in the Earth's crust. A common feature of these deposits is that all the mineralizing fluids contained significant amounts of dissolved chlorine, which forms chemical complexes with the metal ions and allows higher concentrations of metals to be transported by the water from the metal source regions to the area where the ore deposit formed. As such the chlorine in these fluids is a major component of the ore forming system.