Western Australian hydrothermal and magmatic deposits that formed several hundred kilometres apart more than two and half billion years ago share more commonalities than previously thought.
PhD student Matthew Demmer, from the ARC Training Centre in Critical Resources for the Future at The University of Western Australia, is lead author of the study published in Nature Communications, which revealed new links between mineral deposits that historically were thought to have formed through very different processes.
"In geology, we usually consider different deposit types as unrelated, but we took a different approach here and explored their commonalities instead as a way to learn how to explore for them more efficiently and sustainably," Mr Demmer said.
The study examined hydrothermal gold in the Kalgoorlie and Kurnalpi Terranes and magmatic palladium-platinum-nickel in the South-west Terrane of the Archean Yilgarn Craton of WA.
"We found that these deposits not only formed at the same time but also shared isotopic and metal signatures, as well as a connection to a hydrous mantle," Mr Demmer said.
The results suggest that the deposits shared their origin with a mantle that had been previously enriched in metals and volatiles, which moved through the Earth's crust to create ore.
"Our findings challenge conventional views that treat this type of mineralised systems as unrelated," Mr Demmer said.
"We suggest that instead of using models that focus on understanding the formation of single deposits to help us find more mineral deposits, geologists should also adopt a 'bottom-up' approach.
"Understanding what processes enrich the mantle and when these processes occur, might help us understand where to look on the surface and in geological time for new mineral deposits."
