Direct dating of the formation and modification of ore deposits in Sweden
Short description
The transition to a carbon-free or green energy society and industry needs to include the assessment of metals and minerals required for key components to enable this technological leap. Many of these key metals and minerals are also presently classified as critical by the EU and are currently supplied by only a few countries. This project proposes research activities to a field we call “direct dating of ore deposits in Sweden”. The ambition is not to simply date a mineral but investigate datable minerals in well-constrained textural context.
Background
Recent global events have given concrete and dramatic examples of how dependent Europe is on an imported supply of natural resources and has shown the urgency to get dramatically more resilient in this area. Among the most important critical metals are lithium (Li), cobalt (Co) and the rare earth elements (REE; e.g., Blengini et al. 2020), for which the Fennoscandian Shield is considered to be one of the most prospective regions in Europe. In this context, it is not by chance that Sweden has historically played a central role in the discovery of those metals, as it also hosts some of the most important resources within Europe´s borders of the relevant mineral hosts.
However, since these critical metals were not as important in the past, knowledge in Sweden on the origin of critical metal mineral deposits is limited, compared for example to base metal deposits.
Aim
The major idea in this research project is to apply a large set of dating tools to selected mineral deposits of strategic relevance, and to conduct case studies on a deposit scale level. Even though each dating protocol is well established, the novelty is the combination of different techniques which allows unprecedented comparison with expected synergies.
We aim to apply recently published analytical protocols for dating minerals directly related to ore mineralization to some of Sweden’s most insightful mineral deposits. Another aim is to gain a better understanding for the temporal evolution of these mineral deposits in connection with the interplay of several magmatic, metamorphic and tectonic events affecting the surrounding areas.
