Magmatic Sulfide Deposits

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  • Title: Magmatic Sulfide Deposits: Geology, Geochemistry and Exploration.
  • Author: Professor Anthony J. Naldrett
  • Publisher: Springer
  • Pages: 743

There are two principal types of magmatic sulfide deposit, those that are sulfide-rieb, generally containing in excess of 30% sulfide, which are exploited primarily for their Ni, Cu and/or Co, with the PGE comprising a by-product, and those that contain less than 5% sulfide, which are of interest primarily because of their PGE with Ni and Cu as the by-products.

For the first 20 years of my career, I worked, both as company geologist and then researcher, primarily on deposits of the first type. It came to be appreciated that even though the PGE were only present in trace amounts, they could tell us much about the provenance of, and the rocesses that had operated in the formation of these deposits. This led me into studying PGE-rich deposits at a time when there was a growing commercial interest in them, driven by their increasing use in protecting the environment.

Looking back, I appreciate the tremendous benefit that an academic can gain from sabbatical leave. My first was granted in 1972, and I ccepted Wilf Ewers invitation to work with the CSIRO in Perth, Western Australia as part of their research on the developing komatiite-related Ni sulfide camp in the Bastern Goldfields. This year gave me a grounding in this style of deposit and showed me that not all magmatic sulfides ores were the same as those at Sudbury!

My second sabbatical in 1980 allowed me to accept Gero von Gruenewaldt’s invitation to join the Bushveld Research Institute of the University of Pretoria, and coincided with my then developing interest in PGE deposits. This was the start of a 1 0-year lang close association with South Africa and the ores of the southern part ofthat continent, and without this start, Chap. 9 would never have been written.

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