STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY OF THE GEORGE FISHER MINE (GFM)
Supervisors: Patrice Rey and Mark Haydon (XStrata)
Honours Project
Sub-vertical faults occur at all scales at George Fisher South (GFS). These faults commonly strike NNE and show both reverse and normal apparent offsets, thickening or thinning of orebodies. These faults are of particular importance as the richest grades are found where the orebody is reverse faulted.
The first objective of this honours project is to answer the following questions:
1. What is the significance of these faults in relation to the ore body?
2. What is their timing relationship with other fault families?
3. Is there any re-activation?
The second objective is to test the hypothesis according to which these vertical faults initiated as thrust faults at a time when the Urquhart shales were sub-horizontal.
STRUCTURAL FRAMEWORK OF HILTON MINE MINERALISATION (GFM)
Supervisors: Patrice Rey and Mark Haydon (XStrata)
PhD Project
For details contact Patrice Rey
FAULT ARCHITECTURE AND RELATONSHIP TO MINERALISATION (GFM)
Supervisors: Patrice Rey and Mark Haydon (XStrata)
PhD Project
This project aims at compiling an atlas of fault characteristics, style, kinematics, total slip, infilling material, width, offsets etc. and to analyse the relationship between mine-scale fault and regional scale fault architectures.
TRACE ELEMENT GEOCHEMISTRY OF ORE DEPOSITS
Supervisors: Derek Wyamn and Mark Haydon (XStrata)
Masters/PhD Project
Trace elements distribution can be used to characterize orebodies in structurally complex areas and when strong leaching makes orebody recognition difficult. The objective of this project is to characterise the trace element fingerprint of each orebody and their alteration halo. Based on the presence of certain elements this project will contribute to draw conclusions about deposition, diagenisis and subsequent alteration and enrichment processes.
COPPER / CHALCOPYRITE STORY
Supervisors: Derek Wyamn and Mark Haydon (XStrata)
Masters/PhD Project
In some orebodies of the GFM, copper, in the form of chalcopyrite, occurs in concentrations of up to 1% . This has a deleterious effect on concentrator recoveries. Chalcopyrite at GFM is commonly found with Galena and Sphalerite, whereas in Mt Isa town mine the silica-dolomite halo completely destroys any Pb-Zn mineralization. This suggests different physico-chemical conditions for the GFM copper and the Cu of Mt Isa town Mine. It would be interesting to see if these chalcopyrite depositional conditions are restricted to particular orebodies or if they are distributed throughout the mine sequence. We could also investigate any zoning of a halo that we might identify. Xstrata Objectives:- 1. Investigate the copper mineralization throughout the mine host sequence and compare and contrast it to Cu town mine copper. 2. Evaluate the copper distribution and zonation throughout the different orebodie.
