Hunting high and low: mapping ancient topography to find copper

向脱碳社会过渡需要大量的铜；然而，阻碍基于系统的铜勘探方法的是缺乏地球表面演化的一阶数据集，即古地理。该项目旨在通过发展创新的全球古地理重建，发掘深时斑岩铜的潜在区域。该项目的预期成果包括新的定量古地理重建，以及首次对铜保存潜力进行良好约束的重建。这将带来诸如提高对斑岩铜生命周期的理解等好处，对资源勘探和脱碳工作产生重大影响。

Transitioning to a decarbonised society requires significant amounts of copper; however, preventing a systems-based exploration approach for copper is the lack of a first-order dataset of the Earth’s surface evolution, known as palaeogeography. This project aims to unearth potential areas of porphyry copper through deep time by developing innovative global palaeogeography reconstructions. Expected outcomes of this project include new quantitative palaeogeography reconstructions, as well as the first well-constrained reconstructions of copper preservation potential. This should provide benefits such as an improved understanding of the porphyry copper lifecycle, with significant impacts for resource exploration and decarbonisation efforts.