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Thursday October 7
Time: 6pm – 7:30pm
Coopers Alehouse at the Earl, Pulteney Street Adelaide
– A mini convention with three speakers:
Outline:
Australia is host to a diverse range of rare earth element (REE) ore deposits, and therefore is well placed to be a major supplier of REE into the future. Most REE ore deposits formed during the Mesoproterozoic (also known as Earth’s middle ages) are related to unusual alkaline igneous rocks.
However, some recently discovered heavy REE deposits in Australia are not associated with any igneous or tectonic activity. In this talk Carl, Diana and Jessica describe the geology of these unusual ore deposits and present a working model for their formation.
Carl Spandler, Diana Zivak and Jessica Walsh
Dr Carl Spandler is Director of the Australian Critical Minerals Research Centre at the University of Adelaide. He has worked in various academic roles at ANU, JCU, The University of Bern, and now at Uni Adelaide. He uses petrology and geochemistry to research the evolution of the Earth’s crust and mantle, and the formation of metalliferous ore deposits. His primary research focus for the last 10 years has been on recognising and understanding the critical mineral resource potential of Australia.
Dr Diana Zivak obtained undergraduate degrees and a PhD at the University of Adelaide, and has worked both in industry (in coal and in gold exploration) and academia as a postdoctoral researcher at Curtin University and the University of South Australia. Her research has focussed on using the mineralogy and geochemistry of resistate minerals to detect anomalous geochemical signatures that are associated with mineralisation. Diana is now a postdoctoral researcher in the Australian Critical Minerals Research Centre working on the REE potential of phosphorites of the Georgina Basin in QLD.
Dr Jessica Walsh is currently an ARC grant-funded Postdoctoral Researcher within the Australia Critical Minerals Research Centre. She was awarded her PhD from the University of Wollongong in 2021. Her research applies tectonics, geochemistry and geochronology to understanding collisional tectonic processes and on how and where deposits of critical metals, such as rare earth elements, are formed within the Australian continent.
