REGISTRATION CLOSES ON FRIDAY, MAY 7th AT 11:59PM PST.
Carbonate‐hosted ore deposits (including skarn and carbonate-replacement deposits, Carlin-type gold deposits) often have very limited mineralogical and lithogeochemical alteration halos. The highly reactive carbonate host rocks neutralize acidic hydrothermal fluids, limiting the ability of those fluids to cause hydrothermal alteration or transport pathfinder elements into the surrounding rocks. This makes them difficult exploration targets and recognising a “near miss” during exploration may be challenging. However, carbon and oxygen stable isotope ratios in the rocks surrounding carbonate‐hosted ore deposits often record large alteration halos (on the order of hundreds of meters to kilometers) which can be used to identify and vector toward ore bodies.
In this half-day short course, it will cover the practical information that you need in order to successfully test and apply stable carbon and oxygen isotope analyses, alongside other industry-standard exploration tools, to explore for ore bodies hosted within carbonate host rocks. The course will cover:
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- An introduction to stable isotopes
- Isotopes, fluids and ore deposits
- Fluid-rock reaction and reaction fronts
- Determining isotope backgrounds
- Collecting stable isotope data in carbonate rocks
- A case study from the Mount Isa copper deposits including integration of isotopes and lithogeochemistry
- Conceptual use of isotopes in early-stage exploration in poorly characterised systems
- Use of isotopes in a carbonate-hosted exploration workflow
In Preparation for This Course:
- Digitized course materials will be made available to all participants few days prior to the short course (a link will be shared).
