Characterisation of Mineralised Material from the Loki’s Castle Hydrothermal Vent on the Mohn’s Ridge
Loki’s Castle on the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge (AMOR) is an area of possible seafloor massive sulphide (SMS)-style mineralisation under Norwegian jurisdiction, which, due to mounting social pressure, may be a strategic future source of base and precious metals. The purpose of this study is to character...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:dcf98885566542a0bbe409186753847e 2024-10-20T14:06:49+00:00 Characterisation of Mineralised Material from the Loki’s Castle Hydrothermal Vent on the Mohn’s Ridge Ben Snook Kristian Drivenes Gavyn K. Rollinson Kurt Aasly 2018-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/min8120576 https://doaj.org/article/dcf98885566542a0bbe409186753847e EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/8/12/576 https://doaj.org/toc/2075-163X doi:10.3390/min8120576 https://doaj.org/article/dcf98885566542a0bbe409186753847e Minerals, Vol 8, Iss 12, p 576 (2018) Seafloor sulphides Norway Arctic Mid Ocean Ridge copper zinc mineralogy ICP-ES/MS XRD EPMA QEMSCAN QE351-399.2 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/min8120576 2024-10-09T17:27:40Z Loki’s Castle on the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge (AMOR) is an area of possible seafloor massive sulphide (SMS)-style mineralisation under Norwegian jurisdiction, which, due to mounting social pressure, may be a strategic future source of base and precious metals. The purpose of this study is to characterise mineralised material from a hydrothermal vent system on the AMOR in detail for the first time, and to discuss the suitability of methods used; reflected light microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), whole rock geochemistry, electron probe micro-analysis (EPMA), and QEMSCAN. The primary sulphide phases, identifiable by microscopy, are pyrite and marcasite with minor pyrrhotite and galena, but multiple samples from the Loki’s Castle contain economically interesting quantities of copper (hosted in isocubanite and chalcopyrite) and zinc (hosted in sphalerite), as well as silver and gold. This reinforces the notion that slow spreading ridges may host significant base metal deposits. Micro-textures (chalcopyrite inclusions and exsolutions in sphalerite and isocubanite respectively) are typically undefinable by QEMSCAN, and require quantitative measurement by EPMA. QEMSCAN can be used to efficiently generate average grain size and mineral association data, as well as composition data, and is likely to be a powerful tool in assessing the effectiveness of SMS mineral processing. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Norway Minerals 8 12 576 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Seafloor sulphides Norway Arctic Mid Ocean Ridge copper zinc mineralogy ICP-ES/MS XRD EPMA QEMSCAN QE351-399.2 |
spellingShingle |
Seafloor sulphides Norway Arctic Mid Ocean Ridge copper zinc mineralogy ICP-ES/MS XRD EPMA QEMSCAN QE351-399.2 Ben Snook Kristian Drivenes Gavyn K. Rollinson Kurt Aasly Characterisation of Mineralised Material from the Loki’s Castle Hydrothermal Vent on the Mohn’s Ridge |
topic_facet |
Seafloor sulphides Norway Arctic Mid Ocean Ridge copper zinc mineralogy ICP-ES/MS XRD EPMA QEMSCAN QE351-399.2 |
description |
Loki’s Castle on the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge (AMOR) is an area of possible seafloor massive sulphide (SMS)-style mineralisation under Norwegian jurisdiction, which, due to mounting social pressure, may be a strategic future source of base and precious metals. The purpose of this study is to characterise mineralised material from a hydrothermal vent system on the AMOR in detail for the first time, and to discuss the suitability of methods used; reflected light microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), whole rock geochemistry, electron probe micro-analysis (EPMA), and QEMSCAN. The primary sulphide phases, identifiable by microscopy, are pyrite and marcasite with minor pyrrhotite and galena, but multiple samples from the Loki’s Castle contain economically interesting quantities of copper (hosted in isocubanite and chalcopyrite) and zinc (hosted in sphalerite), as well as silver and gold. This reinforces the notion that slow spreading ridges may host significant base metal deposits. Micro-textures (chalcopyrite inclusions and exsolutions in sphalerite and isocubanite respectively) are typically undefinable by QEMSCAN, and require quantitative measurement by EPMA. QEMSCAN can be used to efficiently generate average grain size and mineral association data, as well as composition data, and is likely to be a powerful tool in assessing the effectiveness of SMS mineral processing. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ben Snook Kristian Drivenes Gavyn K. Rollinson Kurt Aasly |
author_facet |
Ben Snook Kristian Drivenes Gavyn K. Rollinson Kurt Aasly |
author_sort |
Ben Snook |
title |
Characterisation of Mineralised Material from the Loki’s Castle Hydrothermal Vent on the Mohn’s Ridge |
title_short |
Characterisation of Mineralised Material from the Loki’s Castle Hydrothermal Vent on the Mohn’s Ridge |
title_full |
Characterisation of Mineralised Material from the Loki’s Castle Hydrothermal Vent on the Mohn’s Ridge |
title_fullStr |
Characterisation of Mineralised Material from the Loki’s Castle Hydrothermal Vent on the Mohn’s Ridge |
title_full_unstemmed |
Characterisation of Mineralised Material from the Loki’s Castle Hydrothermal Vent on the Mohn’s Ridge |
title_sort |
characterisation of mineralised material from the loki’s castle hydrothermal vent on the mohn’s ridge |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/min8120576 https://doaj.org/article/dcf98885566542a0bbe409186753847e |
geographic |
Arctic Norway |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Norway |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Minerals, Vol 8, Iss 12, p 576 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/8/12/576 https://doaj.org/toc/2075-163X doi:10.3390/min8120576 https://doaj.org/article/dcf98885566542a0bbe409186753847e |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/min8120576 |
container_title |
Minerals |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
576 |
_version_ |
1813445771367809024 |