31. Porphyry Systems - from Bottom to Top

Discovery to Recovery

Can we track the evolution of a fertile porphyry system from the mantle to the deposit? The FAMOS (From Arc Magmas to Ores) Project in the UK was conceived to tackle the fundamental processes involved in porphyry ore systems and brought a diverse set of researchers and industry collaborators together. The interdisciplinary teams combined experimental petrology, volcanology, numerical modelling and mineral analysis. They worked together to constrain the conditions for porphyry ore deposit formation and to further develop indicators of fertile systems.

The aim was to use mineral chemistry to interpret processes in the magmatic-hydrothermal systems and ultimately use the recorded signatures in minerals as a discrimination tool in exploration. As the project wraps-up we talked to three contributors about what they have learned and what this type of ‘big’ science collaboration can accomplish.
Our first guest, Jamie Wilkinson is a senior scientist at the Natural History Museum in London, UK. A self-described 'want to be petrologist', Jamie has a diverse background in ore deposits with expertise in metal transport, applications of mineral chemistry and isotopes. Jamie is a leader of the FAMOS research project and takes us through the big ideas from the mantle to the signatures in the minerals.
Growing up in Siberia, Elena Melekhova was surrounded by geology and mines, but it was the discovery of experimental petrology that united her drive to understand the natural world with her passion for laboratory experiments. Elena is the experimental petrology laboratory lead at the University of Oxford and her FAMOS research provides fundamental data that challenges some of our assumption about the Sr/Y indicator ratio.
So why would industry be interested in participating in this fundamental research into magmatic-hydrothermal processes? We talked to Christian Ihlenfeld, Anglo American to find out what was surprising to them about the outcomes and why they provided a significant, large data set on the Los Bronces District, Chile for use by the FAMOS consortium.
Theme music is Confluence by Eastwinds
eastwindsmusic.com

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