A genetic and exploration model for syenite-hosted scandium mineralisation

材料科学的最新进展促进了高拉伸强度、耐热、耐腐蚀铝钪合金的发展，这些合金在日益绿色的航空航天和汽车工业中具有巨大潜力。由于目前钪的生产大部分在中国和俄罗斯，因此迫切需要在西方寻找钪资源。帝国矿业集团有限公司（Imperial Mining Group Ltd.）是一家加拿大小型矿业公司，专门从事勘探和开发具有稀土元素潜力的矿产，控制着魁北克北部的火山口湖矿产，并已证明其下方的正长岩环脉复合体含有潜在可开采浓度的钪。 Imperial Mining 要求开发一个遗传模型来了解有利于钪在正长岩中浓度达到经济水平的因素，以便为 Crater Lake 综合体制定有效的勘探策略。开发此类模型的出发点是确定金属在何处（在哪些岩石/矿物中）以及如何富集。根据我们最近的研究（Williams-Jones 和 Vasyukova，2018），我们知道 Sc 是一种不相容元素，集中在早期分馏（来自岩浆）的铁镁矿物中，特别是单斜辉石。对帝国矿业向申请人提供的少量样品的分析结果表明，单斜辉石可能是火山口湖部分或全部钪的宿主。拟议的研究将通过结合大块岩石、矿物和熔体包裹体的主量元素和微量元素分析来重建岩浆的演化和可能的固相线下热液蚀变，从而追踪火山口湖钪富集的路径。这将产生一个基因模型，帝国公司将使用该模型来瞄准火山口湖复合体中的钪矿化，并将普遍促进加拿大其他地方经济正长岩钪矿床的勘探和发现。

Recent advances in materials science have led to the development of high tensile strength, thermally and corrosion resistant aluminium-scandium alloys that have great potential in the increasingly green aerospace and automotive industry. As most current production of scandium is in China and Russia, there is an urgent need to find scandium resources in the West. Imperial Mining Group Ltd., a Canadian junior mining company specialising in the exploration and development of mineral properties with the potential for hosting rare earth elements, controls the Crater Lake property in northern Québec, and has demonstrated that the underlying syenite ring dyke complex contains potentially mineable concentrations of scandium. Imperial Mining requires that a genetic model be developed to understand the factors that favour the concentration of scandium to economic levels in syenites in order to devise an effective exploration strategy for the Crater Lake complex. The starting point for developing such a model is to establish where (in what rocks/minerals) and how the metal is concentrated. As a result of our recent research (Williams-Jones and Vasyukova, 2018) we know that Sc is an incompatible element and concentrates in early fractionating (from the magma) ferromagnesian minerals, particularly clinopyroxene. Results of analyses of a small number of samples supplied to the applicant by Imperial Mining suggest that clinopyroxene may be the host to some or all of the scandium at Crater Lake. The proposed research will trace the path of scandium enrichment at Crater Lake by reconstructing the evolution of the magma and possible subsolidus hydrothermal alteration using a combination of major and trace element analyses of bulk rocks, minerals and melt inclusions. This will lead to a genetic model that will be used by Imperial to target the scandium mineralisation in the Crater Lake complex and will promote generally the exploration for and discovery of economic syenite-hosted scandium deposits elsewhere in Canada.