MRT contributes to global magnetite-apatite ores study
A global collaboration, including researchers from Canada, Spain, USA, Australia (Ralph Bottrill from MRT), China, Germany and Iran, has produced an innovative paper on the contribution of molten salts to the formation of magnetite-apatite ores.
The study compares 20 magnetite-apatite deposits worldwide and highlights the benefits of wide-scale collaborative efforts by discovering that the contribution of molten salts associated with this style of mineralisation, previously thought to be local in nature, is actually globally ubiquitous.
For decades, magnetite-apatite deposits have defied attempts to define a coherent genetic model. This study concludes that this is largely because one of the key ingredients—molten salts—has been overlooked. The paper was published by the Geological Society of America in Geology.