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Nanoscale geochemistry of critical elements; applications for mineral exploration and recovery from secondary sources

Goodman, Aaron J.
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Advisor
Ranville, James F.
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Date
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2024
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Keywords
acid mine drainage
 dredged material
 mineral chemistry
 mineral exploration
 nanogeochemistry
 single particle ICP-MS
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2024 - Mines Theses & Dissertations
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Goodman_mines_0052E_12818.pdf
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Goodman_mines_0052E_316/Appendix A.docx
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Goodman_mines_0052E_316/Appendix B.docx
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Goodman_mines_0052E_316/Appendix C.docx
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Goodman_mines_0052E_316/Appendix D.docx
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https://hdl.handle.net/11124/179339
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Abstract
Global demand for critical elements is rapidly increasing, driven by the need to transition to renewable forms of energy and combat anthropogenic climate change. Critical element demand can be met through two sources; mining new ore deposits, and recovery from secondary sources including waste. The development of new analytical methods can lead to the discovery of new ore deposits, as well as improve characterization of potential secondary sources. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the nanogeochemistry of critical elements in both mineral exploration and resource recovery contexts. Single particle inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (spICP-MS) is employed in Chapter 2 to improve characterization of mineral nanoparticles with respect to their size distributions and elemental compositions. A proof of concept study is presented in Chapter 3, which demonstrated that gold and silver NPs could be detected in stream sediments by spICP-MS, and were related to upstream mineralization. This work is expanded in Chapter 4, where a stream sediment survey of the concealed Sundance gold deposit was conducted, and results of conventional geochemistry are compared with spICP-MS. In Chapter 5, the multi-elemental capability of spICP-Time-of-Flight-MS is employed to investigate mineral chemistry in nanoparticles in a mineral exploration context. Chapters 6 and 7 present studies related to critical element recovery from two secondary sources; acid mine drainage, and dredged material. Continued study of critical element nanogeochemistry, and development of spICP-MS can further efforts to explore for both conventional and unconventional resources.
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