Origin of giant sediment-hosted base-metal deposits: case studies from the Central African Copperbelt, Democratic Republic of Congo

铜和锌等工业金属对日常生活至关重要，长期以来一直是加拿大经济的重要组成部分。部分暴露在地球表面且相对容易找到的未被发现的矿床现在已经很少了，矿产勘探必须将重点转移到埋藏的（“盲”）资源上，这些资源将是未来的金属来源。开发智能和有效的方法来寻找隐蔽的矿床，需要投资于了解矿床是如何以及为什么在哪里形成的。该项目将利用两个特殊的铜和锌矿床作为案例研究，促进对主要类型的贱金属矿床形成的地点和原因的理解。刚果民主共和国（DRC）和赞比亚的中非铜带（CACB）已经被发现和开采了几个世纪，但矿化事件的时间和该地区大量贱金属的最终来源一直难以解决；该地区统一的地质历史和对其世界级禀赋的解释仍然难以捉摸。该项目将研究刚果民主共和国两个尚未得到充分研究的世界级沉积物型贱金属矿床的起源、控制及其更广泛的影响：Kipushi和Kamoa。在此过程中，该项目将有助于在全球范围内，包括加拿大西北部的相关地区，了解这些类型的沉积物矿石系统的主要控制因素，并将培养五名研究生，一名博士后研究员和两名本科生。

Industrial metals such as copper and zinc are critical to everyday life and have long been a significant component of Canada's economy. Undiscovered ore deposits that are partly exposed at Earth's surface and comparatively easy to find are now rare, and mineral exploration must shift focus to buried ('blind') resources that will be the future's sources of metals. Developing intelligent and efficient ways to find blind ore deposits will require investing in understanding how and why ore deposits form where they do. This project will advance the understanding of where and why a major type of base-metal deposit forms, using two exceptional copper and zinc deposits as case studies. The Central African Copperbelt (CACB) in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia has been known and exploited for centuries, but the timing of mineralising events and the ultimate source of the enormous volume of base metals in the district have proven difficult to resolve; a unified geological history of the district and explanation for its world-class endowment remain elusive. This project will address the origin, controls on, and broader implications of two understudied world-class sediment-hosted base-metal deposits in DRC: Kipushi and Kamoa. In doing so, this project will contribute to the understanding of the dominant controls on these types of sediment-hosted ore system globally, including related districts in northwestern Canada, and will train five graduate students, one post-doctoral fellow, and two undergraduate students.