Quadrennial COM report to IMA (1998 - 2002)
Officers of the Commission of Ore Mineralogy for 1998 – 2002 were elected in 1998 at Toronto (Appendix 1). They are: Dr Alan J. Criddle (UK), Chairman, Prof. Roland K.W. Merkle (South Africa) Vice-Chairman, Dr. Kari K. Kojonen (Finland), Secretary. Dr. Alan Criddle was seriously ill for a long time, and passed away on May 2nd, 2002.
The Chairman of COM, Dr. Alan J. Criddle passed away on 2nd May 2002 in Trinity Hospice in London at the age of 57.
During the past four years, there have been a number of developments with respect to activity of the Commission.
1. PROMOTION OF THE COM:
1.1. COM has communicated with National Representatives (NR) of IMA on yearly basis to maintain active contacts. Some NR’s cannot be reached by e-mail or they do not reply anyway (Brazil, Canada, Poland). A list of addresses of NR of COM have been kept and updated (Appendix 2). The NR has changed in Belgium, Denmark and Norway. The COM communicated with Prof. Cecar Canepa to start a Mineralogical Association in Peru and to organize in future a COM Short Course in Peru.
1.2. The COM completed a list of persons active in the field of ore mineralogy. The computer program “IMA-COM directory of Ore Mineralogists” was made by Dr. Heinz-Juergen Bernhardt, Bochum Germany, and distributed by e-mail to all persons listed within it. Further replies may be delivered to Heinz-Juergen.Bernhardt@rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de.
2. BUSINESS MEETING
Officers and National Representatives met at the SEA PARK hotel, Espoo Finland, June 13th 2000 (Appendix 3). The sessions for IMA 2002 General Meeting and other future COM activities were discussed. Dr. Heinz-Juergen Bernhardt reported about the IMA-COM directory of Ore Mineralogists, which is ready for distribution.
3. SHORT COURSES
3.1. The COM sponsored together with the Mineralogical Association of Canada, the Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology (CANMET), the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), and the University of Guelph, a Short Course on “Modern Approaches to Ore and Environmental Mineralogy” which took place at CANMET and GSC during the period 3 - 7 August, 1998 and at the University of Guelph on 8th August. Besides the lectures, numerous laboratory sessions were held that covered many subjects of relevance to ore mineralogy such as ore microscopy, cathodoluminescence, variable pressure SEM, electron microprobe, image analysis, SHRIMP, SIMS, and micro-PIXE. There were 25 registered for the course and 13 lecturers. The registrants and lecturers were well distributed between industry (11), universities (16) and government organizations (11), and came from across Canada and around the world. The geographic origin of the participants was Argentina (1), Australia (2), Brazil (1), Canada (23), Italy (1), Korea (1), South Africa (1), Russia (1), United Kingdom (5), and United States (1). A book has been published as Volume 27 of the Mineralogical Association of Canada’s Short Course Series, consisting of 421 pages, and is available for purchase at $48.00 in Canada. The book is dedicated to the memory of the late Norman Henry for his important work in quantitative ore microscopy and his strong support of the COM.
3.2. A COM Short Course “Modern Approaches to Ore and Environmental Mineralogy” was sponsored in Pretoria, South Africa, 13-16 September 1999 at the Council for Geosciences in Pretoria. South Africa. The Short Course was arranged for IMA COM under the auspices of MINSA (Mineralogical Association of South Africa) and South African Council for Geosciences (CGS). Total amount of participants was 89 including 13 lecturers, 3 organizers and 12 students. The format of the Short Course was modified slightly from the one previously held in Ottawa, Canada 1998. The format comprised the standard three days of invited morning lectures and afternoon "hands-on" practical sessions, but also had a fourth day of oral and poster presentations (MINSA Mini-Symposium) during which participants could share new approaches and data developed at their own institutions. The Short Course once again proved to be very popular this year. It was fully subscribed. Unfortunately, participation was limited by space in some of the practical sessions and the fact that only fifty MAC, Volume 27 Handbooks (Cabri and Vaughan. 1998) were initially ordered for participants. The Local Organising Committee (LOC) permitted four late registrations, for which the handbooks were ordered afterwards. Fifteen students were allowed to participate at a much-reduced rate if they were prepared to miss out on the practical sessions and forfeit receipt of the much-valued handbooks. Owing to some excellent local subvention a further 7 students from developing countries and some local universities had their registration fees fully or partly sponsored by the LOC. Indeed, the success of the Short Course and MINSA Mini-Symposium is largely attributed to all its sponsors who warrant mention, i.e., AMPLATS, Anglovaal Mining, Billiton, Council for Geosciences, De Beers Geology, FRD-ISCOR, Perkin Elmer, Philips Electron Optics, Premier Technologies, and Wirsam Scientific. The course schedule included repeat presentations by some of the invited lecturers (cf. Cabri and Vaughan, 1998), as well as some first-time local and foreign experts, including, e-g. Crystal chemistry of the sulphide minerals and its effect on their- properties (J.de Villiers); Mantle macrocryst minerals in diamond exploration (J.J. Gurney); Application of Time-of-flight-SIMS to mineral processing (N. Plint) and Application of LA-ICP-MS to ore mineralogy, ore genesis and mineral exploration (S. Jackson). The Practical sessions included, amongst others; LA-ICP-MS; automated phase analysis; ore microscopy and GIS applications. A disappointment with respect to the practices, for participants and organizers alike, was the absence of a GADDS system, which was initially promised by the local agents. The MINSA Mini-Symposium presentations amounted to 26 in total, of which nearly 60% were from countries as far a field as Canada, Kenya, Australia, Spain, Germany and Finland. The oral sessions essentially focused on analytical techniques and applications; mineralogy, geochemistry and environment; and applied mineralogy involving the use of mineralogy for the containment of industrial pollutants. For the mini-symposium, an extended abstracts volume of 137 pages was compiled by Reimold and Cloete (1999).
Two separate one-day excursions in the vicinity of Pretoria were arranged especially for the large contingent (43%) of foreign delegates, who had not yet had the opportunity to see some world-class kimberlite, platinum and chromite geology. The excursions were fully booked. The Premier Diamond Mine and Nooitgedacht refractory clay deposits were visited on Friday 17 September, and Western Platinum Mine and Hemic. Ferrochrome (mine and smelter) were visited on Saturday 13 September. The mines provided generously with respect to staff for guided tours, meals and refreshments attesting to typical South African hospitality. The Short Course dinner proved to be one of the main highlights of the week. Delegates were treated to a unique South African experience as traditional cuisine and wine were on offer at the Meintjieskop Restaurant, situated in the picturesque Union Buildings, also known to be the seat of Government in South Africa.
3.3. A COM sponsored Short Course “Modern Approaches to Ore and Environmental Mineralogy” mainly financed by NorFA and organised in Collaboration with Geological Survey of Finland (GSF), Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) and Mineralogical Society of Finland (MSF) was held at the Sea Park congress hotel in Espoo, Finland 11-18 June, 2000. The course had a total of 70 participants including 20 lecturers, 25 Nordic and 5 Russian students or postgraduates and 6 local organizers. The program of the first three days consisted of invited lectures given by 15 lecturers from Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden and United Kingdom. The first day of the course was mainly focused in optical microscopy, the second day in the environmental mineralogy and the third day in the modern analytical methods and their applications. As a textbook covering most of the lectures, the Short Course Series Vol. 27 published by the Mineralogical Association of Canada in 1998 was given to each participant (Modern Approaches to Ore and Environmental Mineralogy, edited by Louis J. Cabri and David J Vaughan). During the first three days, microscopic exercises were held each afternoon studying ore and environmental samples. For this purpose 21 optical microscopes were transported to the short course venue from HUT, GSF, University of Helsinki and from commercial microscope representatives. One of the research microscopes was equipped with a colour TV-video gun system to enable the projecting of the microscopic image on the screen of the auditorium. 12 ten specimen sets of polished sections from the collection of the Commission of Ore Mineralogy and 15 ten specimen sets specially made at GSF and HUT for the Espoo course were studied during the microscopy sessions under the instruction of the lecturers: Dr. Bernhardt, Dr. Cabri, Dr. Chernet, Dr. Genkin, Dr. Grguric, Dr. Jambor, Dr. Kojonen, Prof. Merkle, Dr. Stanley, Prof. Vaughan and Prof. Vokes. Some of the lecturers (Dr. Genkin, Prof. Merkle) brought their own specimens to be shown during the exercises for the students. Practical demonstrations of some research methods (e.g., reflectance and hardness measurements by Dr. Heinz-Juergen Bernhardt), and available mineralogical software were also carried out during the afternoons by Dr. Bernhardt, Dr. Voncken and Dr. Kojonen. Environmental samples were studied under instruction of Dr. Jambor, Dr. Herbert and Prof. Stumpfl. During the afternoons of the first three days also visits to different research laboratories in the capital area were arranged: Atomic Force Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Scanning Transmission Electron microscopy, Electron Microprobe, Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry, Neutron Activation Analysis, Forensic Research Laboratory, Laser Ablation Mass Spectrometry. An official business meeting of the Commission on Ore Mineralogy was held at the Sea Park hotel on June 13th, 2000 (see minutes, Appendix 2). Eight national representatives and ten alternates or observers attended the meeting.
The Mineralogical Society of Finland (MSF) Mini Symposium was held on the fourth day in the course venue consisting of 12 oral presentations and 12 poster presentations. The extended abstracts were printed in the Guide 48 published by the geological Survey of Finland, 2000 (101 pages) and distributed to the short course participants. An exhibition of research equipment was organised during the short course in the showroom area of the Sea Park Hotel. The companies involved were Analys Konsult AB, Stockhom Sweden (Hitachi SEM, Cameca EPMA, TOF-SIMS, Bruker XRD); Fennolab Oy, Vantaa (Nikon microscopes); Leica-Nilomark Oy, Espoo (Leica microscopes + image analysis software); Struers A/S, Rødovre Denmark (Struers mineralogical specimen preparation); Phillips Oy, Espoo (Phillips SEM, XRD).
On the fifth day of the course field trips to Orijärvi gold mine and concentrator, Viitaniemi complex pegmatite quarries and Nuuksio natural park were organised. The geological background for the Orivesi gold mine was given at the MSF Mini Symposium by Dr. Kojonen and for the Nuuksio orbicular rock occurrence by Dr. Lahti, who was also guiding the excursion to Viitaniemi pegmatite quarries. The geologists of Outokumpu Mining Oy took care of the guidance at the Orivesi gold mine, and the mineral processing engineers at the Vammala concentrator and tailings area. A second group of participants of the short course made an excursion in the capital area visiting historical iron mines in Kaivoksela, an orbicular rock occurrence in Nuuksio and the Nuuksio Natural Park.
Workshops on platinum group minerals (PGM) and image analysis were organised on the sixth day of the short course at the Geological Survey of Finland by Dr. L. J. Cabri and Dr. R. Lastra, respectively. The lectures at the PGM workshop were given by Dr. Cabri, Dr, Genkin, Prof. Mackovicky and Prof. Merkle on platinum group mineral systematic, experimental petrology, and occurrence in different platinum group element deposits worldwide. The image analysis workshop was conducted by Dr. R. Lastra, using the KS-400 software in applied mineralogy section of the CANMET, Ottawa, Canada. The Carl Zeiss Vision GmbH company, München Germany, sponsored the course by borrowing the necessary image analysis software CD’s in the 10 PC’s used in the computer class of GSF during the image analysis workshop.
The official Short Course dinner cruise with 55 participants was held on board of m/s Diana May 16th in the archipelago in front of the cities of Espoo and Helsinki.
3.4. The COM has started negotiations to sponsor COM Short Courses in Granada, Spain, and/or Modena, Italy in 2004/5. Other places for possible future COM Short Courses suggested are Lima, Peru; Perth, Australia and Indonesia.
4. ORGANIZATION OF MEETINGS
4.1. COM will participate in an organising a symposium in Ore and Applied Mineralogy of the 18th General Meeting of IMA in Edinburgh (September 1-6, 2002). COM will convene a symposium on "Ore Mineralogy" in honour of Alan Criddle’s contribution to ore mineralogy and special sessions ” and will contribute to the sessions "Mineral chemistry and phase transformations: experiment and computation”, “Mineral Surfaces and interfaces” and the Special session "Ore mineralogy of seafloor mineral deposits". The COM has suggested a one-day session & poster session to be organized in the joint EGS-AUG-EUG meeting in 7-11 April 2003 in Nice under the title: "Gold and Platinum Group Minerals; from Experimental Mineralogy and Microanalysis to Deposit Modeling". The first sub-session is planned in experimental sulfide/telluride/arsenide mineralogy, the second in the results of modern analytical techniques, the third in PGM / gold + telluride mineralogy and the fourth in the genesis and deposit modeling. The posters would be arranged accordingly. The reasons to promote this session are: 1) the experimental & mineralogical research and exploration of gold and PGE-deposits is very active in Europe as well as elsewhere in the world; 2) it is in 2003 and 2004 the 200th anniversary of the discovery in London by Wollaston and Smithson Tennant of the elements Ir, Os, Pd, and Rh in 1803/4.
Attachment: Published abstracts, refereed publications & books
