Combining ultratrace speciation and isotopic analyses of minerals and fluids; metal migration and sequestration in ore deposit and environmental research

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The unifying vision of my research is to develop new geochemical process models and use advances in analytical techniques to: (i) push detection limits to much lower levels, through in situ chemical chromatography and ultra-trace preconcentration, and (ii) enhance our ability to measure novel isotopic systems at ultra-trace concentrations, with a particular focus on combined speciation and isotope determination. This long-term vision will advance our understanding of critical metal mobility and attenuation in the geosphere (primary ore deposit and secondary dispersion processes) and across the interface between the geosphere and the biosphere. The novelty and expected significance of this research is in the combination of greatly improved detection limits and integration with a multi-isotope approach. The research will focus in particular on isotope systems not widely used in geological and environmental research, and in application to fundamental and applied problems across geological and astroparticle physics research. I plan to support and train 1 PDF for 2 years, 3 PhD students, 4 MSc students and 5 BSc students in geochemistry and low-level background determinations in astroparticle physics in this proposal. Real advances in our understanding of metal sources in mineral deposit systems and migration in the secondary environment will be achieved by, for the first time, a systematic combination of speciation (in terms of the minerals metals bind to in Earth materials and how metals are complexed in solution) and isotopic measurements of individual species. Many of the processes of elemental migration from natural accumulations of metals (ore deposits) are poorly understood; lower detection limits, particularly of isotopes and redox sensitive species will enable my research group to better deconvolute different elemental sources and therefore to understand better the processes involved. There is also a need to improve in situ analytical techniques, in particular in terms of isotopic determinations, which are hampered by the inability to perform chromatographic separations, as is traditionally done for isotopic determinations, to isolate the analyte of interest from interfering isotopes. The infrastructure at QFIR, including new equipment purchased with my recently awarded CFI grant, is critical to my research vision and agenda. Because of my position in both Geological Sciences and the Arthur B. McDonald Canadian Astroparticle Physics Research Institute (MI), my research long-term vision and shorter-term goals must address the needs of both communities. Thus, the combination of the research group in the Queen's Facility for Isotope Research, which I co-direct, with the tools and expertise within MI, represents a unique opportunity for geology and astroparticle physics to inform advances across these disciplines. My background and my research group are ideally suited for this cross-disciplinary work.