Molten ore
Photograph A: Chalcopyrite containing brecciated country rock, Creighton Mine, Canada.
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Sample: Chalcopyrite containing brecciated country rock
Locality: Creighton Mine, Sudbury Basin, Canada Primary Commodity: Nickel and copper Deposit Type: Magmatic This sample from the Museum’s ore collection comes from the Creighton mine in the Sudbury Basin, Canada and is currently involved in some ground-breaking research using nickel isotopes to trace the behaviour of metals in magmatic ore systems.
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Ore-some impact
The Sudbury structure is one of the world’s most important sources of nickel and copper and is thought to have formed following a large meteor impact 1.8 billion years ago (Robb, 2005).
This sample is dominated by the mineral chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) which is an important copper bearing mineral. The sample is particularly interesting as it highlights that chalcopyrite would have been molten when it formed – so hot that it was able to include fragments of the surrounding country rock within it.
Research
This is just one of six magmatic ore samples from the collection that Dr Louise Gall is using to provide an insight into the processes which cause nickel and copper to separate during the formation of magmatic deposits (Gall, 2011).
Visit window twenty one to read of another sample from the ore collection that is involved in research.
Reference
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The Sudbury structure is one of the world’s most important sources of nickel and copper and is thought to have formed following a large meteor impact 1.8 billion years ago (Robb, 2005).
This sample is dominated by the mineral chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) which is an important copper bearing mineral. The sample is particularly interesting as it highlights that chalcopyrite would have been molten when it formed – so hot that it was able to include fragments of the surrounding country rock within it.
Research
This is just one of six magmatic ore samples from the collection that Dr Louise Gall is using to provide an insight into the processes which cause nickel and copper to separate during the formation of magmatic deposits (Gall, 2011).
Visit window twenty one to read of another sample from the ore collection that is involved in research.
Reference
- Robb, L.J. 2005. Introduction to Ore-Forming Processes. United Kingdom. Blackwell Publishing. p.66
- Gall, L. 2011. Development and application of nickel stable isotopes as a new geochemical tracer. DPhil. University of Oxford: UK.
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