I have worked on magmatic mineral resources as part of the EU funded HiTech AlkCarb consortium.
This worked developed isotopic tracers to understand the origin and evolution of these magmas. I’m always keen to work out how we can apply these to other mineralised magmatic systems!
We studied magmatic complexes in Greenland’s Gardar Province, an ancient rift zone that was volcanically and tectonically active between 1300 and 1100 million years ago.
Uplift and glacial erosion have cut deep into the rift and exposed the rocks and magma chambers that once lay well below the surface.
Gardar magmas have evolved to extreme compositions and host high concentrations of critical metals, including niobium and tantalum. As a result the Gardar Province hosts some of the world’s best mineralised magma bodies.
