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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ftmdpi:oai:mdpi.com:/2075-163X/8/12/576/ 2023-08-20T04:04:19+02:00 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 agris 2018-12-07 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/min8120576 EN eng Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Mineral Deposits https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/min8120576 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Minerals; Volume 8; Issue 12; Pages: 576 Seafloor sulphides Norway Arctic Mid Ocean Ridge copper zinc mineralogy ICP-ES/MS XRD EPMA QEMSCAN Text 2018 ftmdpi https://doi.org/10.3390/min8120576 2023-07-31T21:53:39Z 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. Text Arctic MDPI Open Access Publishing Arctic Norway Minerals 8 12 576 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
MDPI Open Access Publishing |
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ftmdpi |
language |
English |
topic |
Seafloor sulphides Norway Arctic Mid Ocean Ridge copper zinc mineralogy ICP-ES/MS XRD EPMA QEMSCAN |
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Seafloor sulphides Norway Arctic Mid Ocean Ridge copper zinc mineralogy ICP-ES/MS XRD EPMA QEMSCAN 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 |
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 |
Text |
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 |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/min8120576 |
op_coverage |
agris |
geographic |
Arctic Norway |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Norway |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Minerals; Volume 8; Issue 12; Pages: 576 |
op_relation |
Mineral Deposits https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/min8120576 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/min8120576 |
container_title |
Minerals |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
576 |
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1774714713347719168 |