Visit the GREENPEG website at www.greenpeg.eu
The GREENPEG project funded by the European Commission Horizon 2020 ‘Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials’ programme, aims to develop multi-method exploration toolsets for the identification of European rare-metal pegmatite ore deposits.
One approach of the toolset development is to utilize the district scale (<25 km2) trace element distribution of pegmatite-forming quartz to reveal the regional scale chemical zoning of pegmatite fields. The knowledge of the chemical zoning helps to vector into areas where pegmatites with the highest potential of rare metal mineralization occur. In order to do so, trace elements in quartz are analysed with LA-ICP-MS.
The intra-crystal, micro-scale distribution of trace elements is semi-quantitatively determined by high-resolution cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging and spectrometry using the SEM-CL system of the Goldschmidt Laboratory. This method utilizes the relationship between CL defect centers and quartz trace element contents, as certain elements, such as Al, Ti, Ge and Fe, are associated to luminescent CL defect centers.
The two images below show examples of SEM-CL images of quartz from the Tennvatn pegmatite in Tysfjord, northern Norway.
In both images, primary magmatic quartz has homogenous turquois to blue CL indicating homogenous trace element distribution. The primary quartz is occasionally superimposed by fracture-like micro structures healed with secondary quartz with dark red CL.
This secondary quartz is depleted in trace elements compared to the primary quartz.
Additional information
- The GREENPEG project started up in 2020 and with duration out 2024.
- About the project (URL): www.greenpeg.eu