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My research focuses on understating the role of the country-rock and magma interaction in the formation of PGE-rich material.
PhD project title:
Identifying controls on the thickness and geometallurgy of the Flatreef PGE deposit, Turfspruit farm, Northern Limb of the Bushveld Complex, South Africa.
Project description:
I am an economic geologist with the interest in magmatic ore deposits and critical minerals.
My research focuses on understating the role of the country-rock and magma interaction in the formation of PGE-rich material in the Northern Limb of the Bushveld complex.
The Northern Bushveld Complex, South Africa, hosts the world’s largest deposit of platinum-group elements (PGE), the Platreef. In recent years, due to their role in fuel cell technologies and green hydrogen production, PGE have become essential for the transition to net zero. The recently discovered down-dip extension of the Platreef in the Turfspruit Farm, known as the Flatreef deposit, is known to be extraordinarily endowed in PGE, Ni and Cu, with a resource potential of ~10 years of global supply of Pt. However, the stratigraphic thickness of the Flatreef varies, and the relationship between Ni, Cu and PGE is unclear and often decoupled.
Traditional orthomagmatic ore-forming processes cannot fully explain the distribution of mineralisation within the Flatreef, or its heterogenous thickness. Assimilation of dolomite and other reactive sedimentary country rocks during ore formation may have remobilised mineralisation, however, its effect on the ore forming processes is not fully understood. This project investigates the potential controls on the mineralisation in the Flatreef deposit by logging drill core along strike, in different country rock assimilation zones and around various structural features. TIMA automated mineralogical mapping will be used to investigate the geometallurgy (host minerals and how easy they are to extract) of metals in these different zones, and geochemical and petrological analysis will be used to reconstruct ore forming and ore-modifying processes for this deposit.