Utilizing the physical, chemical, and geochronological assets of potassic mica to harness its potential for unraveling critical mineral deposit genesis

Society’s transition to green energy is increasing demands for critical mineral resources.

Understanding how critical mineral deposits form is essential to increase rates of resource extraction while minimizing environmental impacts by determining geometries of known deposits and enabling efficient discovery of new deposits.

The project employs state-of-the-art analytical equipment to examine physical, chemical, and geochronological records of potassic mica associated with critical minerals.

An iterative series of case-studies with rock specimens from known deposits in Sweden and Canada will be performed according to three main research tasks: 1) Physical and chemical records of mica: characterize physical and chemical records in mica and how they manifest regional tectonic events, 2) In situ 40Ar/39Ar, Rb/Sr, and K/Ca geochronology of potassic mica: investigate how isotopic systems behave in response to the tectonic events that affected the mica to provide temporal links between deposits and regional tectonics, and 3) Critical mineral deposit formation: utilize the results of the first two tasks to integrate critical mineral deposit formation with regional tectonics and decipher deposit formation mechanisms.

Overall, the project will provide crucial knowledge of how potassic mica manifest tectonic events and how that information can be used to understand formation mechanisms of critical mineral deposits to optimize resource acquisition.