IN THIS ISSUE
ANNUAL REPORT
GEOPHYSICS FOR TRUTH
PDAC PLANS
AME ROUNDUP
FEATURED PUBLICATIONS
UPCOMING COURSES
CAREER & RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES
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As Director of MERC and Metal Earth, I'm pleased to present our Winter 2022 newsletter, which features our 2021-22 Annual Report, an invitation to an upcoming series of Metal Earth scientific presentations, featured publications, upcoming courses, and career opportunities. We invite you to share our news with colleagues, and always appreciate your feedback.
Have a safe and happy holiday break,
Ross Sherlock, Director, Mineral Exploration Research Centre (MERC) & Metal Earth
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Our 2021-2022 Annual Report, which includes more than 80 pages of research updates, publications, and links to videos of scientific presentations detailing the progress of MERC and Metal Earth projects, is available online. Download it now to read about the latest research summaries from dozens of projects.
We thank our funding and research partners, collaborators, and staff for making this another successful year, and for assisting with the development of this year's document.
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Geophysics PhD candidate and Metal Earth student Chris Mancuso is using his geophysical knowledge and skills to give back to his community, Sioux Valley Dakota Nation (Wipazoka Wapka Oyate).
Mancuso and his supervisor, Dr. Richard Smith, are part of a group called Geophysics for Truth, which is dedicated to assisting First Nations with the detection and identification of burial grounds related to former residential school sites.
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With Mancuso's help, a community project team is making progress in identifying the true boundary of a burial site (closed circa 1957) located on the grounds of a former residential school near Brandon, Manitoba. The site, pictured left, is surrounded by a fence (red line), but unmarked graves may exist beyond the enclosure (green line), as scans from ground penetrating radar show signs of disturbance.
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Chris Mancuso (left) using GPR to scan the burial site with Brent Perrin, Brandon Indian Residential School Project Coordinator, (right) July 2022.
Mancuso hopes that more Indigenous youth are inspired to pursue studies in science, technology, engineering, and math as they learn about opportunities to apply skills and gain expertise that can benefit their communities.
This month, Chris was on the national stage, when the project was featured in a television report on CBC News' The National and on the radio program, The World at Six. You can also learn more about the project and its impact on the community in this Global News digital report.
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MERC, the Harquail School of Earth Sciences, and the Goodman School of Mines will be exhibiting at PDAC 2023, and have a number of events planned before and during the Convention.
Highlights include Metal Earth scientific presentations taking place March 2-3, our MERC Short Course on March 4, and the Student Minerals Colloquium, which runs for the duration of the Convention.
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Mark your calendar and reserve March 2 & 3 for Metal Earth research presentations at the Hyatt Regency in Toronto, 370 King St.
These in-person sessions will span all of Metal Earth's projects and are open to the public. A full agenda will be shared in January.
Want to get caught up on past presentations? View the Metal Earth playlist on YouTube. |
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PDAC SHORT COURSE
New geophysical and geological insights into how crustal architecture influences the gold and base metal endowment of Precambrian terranes
This course will provide insights into how the crustal architecture of Precambrian granite-greenstone terranes influence mineral endowment. Utilizing results from the Metal Earth program where high- and regional-scale resolution reflection seismic, magnetotelluric, gravity and magnetic surveys have provided some of the highest resolution crustal scale images across terranes with variable mineral endowment. Results highlight how crustal architecture is interpreted through integration of the geophysical data with geological, geochemical and geochronological studies.
The course includes presentations from key researchers (geologists, geophysicists and a data analytics specialist) on integration of geophysical, geological and mineral deposit data to understand the subsurface architecture, including examples from the most important mining camps in Ontario and Quebec.
It will have broad appeal to exploration geologists, geophysicists and students to understand controls on base and precious metal deposits across the Superior Craton and the Sudbury district.
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AME ROUNDUP: MEET US IN VANCOUVER
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Join MERC and Metal Earth Director, Ross Sherlock, MERC research associates Rasmus Haugaard and Taus Jørgensen, and MSc student Gabrielle Fouillard in Vancouver at AME Roundup, January 23-26, 2023. Drop by booth #609 to catch up (or meet us) and to discuss research projects and future opportunities.
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These are just a few of our latest research publications. View more here.
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Breakthrough Publication
In 2021-22, Metal Earth research associate Taus Jørgensen and his collaborators worked diligently on preparing an open-access dataset and paper, which for the first time, demonstrates the 3D architecture of a metal-endowed and gold-rich VMS ore system at the iconic Noranda District in Québec, elucidating the processes responsible for extreme metal endowment, including syngenetic and later orogenic gold enrichment.
The open-access paper was published by Jørgensen et al in Scientific Reports, a Nature Portfolio journal, in August 2022.
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The implications of crustal architecture and transcrustal upflow zones on the metal endowment of a world‑class mineral district
Jørgensen, T.R.C., Gibson, H.L., Roots, E.A. et al. The implications of crustal architecture and transcrustal upflow zones on the metal endowment of a world-class mineral district. Sci Rep 12, 14710 (2022).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-18836-y
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Crustal architecture of the south-east Superior Craton and controls on mineral systems
D.R. Mole, B.M. Frieman, P.C. Thurston, J.H. Marsh, T.R.C. Jørgensen, R.A. Stern, L.A.J. Martin, Y.J. Lu, H.L. Gibson, Ore Geology Reviews, Volume 148, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2022.105017
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Mesoarchean diamonds formed in thickened lithosphere, caused by slab-stacking
S. Timmerman, J.R. Reimink, A. Vezinet, F. Nestola, K. Kublik, A. Banas, T. Stachel, R.A. Stern, Y. Luo, C. Sarkar, A. Ielpi, C.A. Currie, C. Mircea, V. Jackson, D.G. Pearson, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Volume 592 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117633.
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Led by Dr. Dan Kontak, Exploration for Hydrothermal Ore Deposits is an 8-day modular course that focuses on the geology, alteration, and origin of hydrothermal ore deposits. Deposit types include epithermal and mesothermal precious metal, porphyry Cu-Mo-Au, IOCG, sediment- and volcanic-hosted base-metal deposits, and U and REE deposits. Emphasis is placed on the processes responsible for their formation, the recognition of alteration halos, and features pertinent to exploration. Register now and join us April 11-20 at Laurentian University's Executive Learning Centre.
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The Harquail School of Earth Sciences, MERC, and Metal Earth attract top-calibre professionals, graduate and undergraduate students, and postdoctoral researchers for academic and staff roles. Many of these opportunities are made possible with support/collaboration from industry, academic, and funding partners.
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