Collaborative Research: Testing endmember hypotheses for the source of mineralizing fluid(s) in iron oxide - copper - gold (IOCG) deposits

Societal demand for critical minerals like copper will only expand as our use of technology such as battery electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines increases. It is important to understand how elements such as copper concentrate in ore deposits. One major obstacle facing the growing demand for copper is how to explore for and find copper ore deposits. This project focuses on improving our understanding of how two types of copper ore deposits form and developing methods to find undiscovered deposits. It will also support a graduate student and several undergraduates who will be trained in mapping, logging, sampling, and laboratory methods. This project will be the first to constrain the multi-element isotopic signature of rocks in a large iron oxide - copper - gold (IOCG) mineral system (Humboldt) that serves as the end-member type locale for the sedimentary basin derived evaporitic brine genetic model and compare those data with a purely magmatic-hydrothermal porphyry-copper mineral system (Yerington), and a seemingly mixed basinal brine and magmatic-hydrothermal system IOCG system (Ernest Henry). The integrated isotopic analysis should reveal end-member chemical signatures that can be used to define these systems as well as potentially be used as a geochemical vector to find unknown mineralization systems. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.