Laura Mateo

Laura Mateo completed her BSc in geology (2009) at the University of the Basque Country in northern Spain. Following completion of her BSc degree, she worked as a project geologist for seven years for the Geological Survey of Chile, in Santiago, Chile, working in the areas of metallogenesis of ore deposits.

This experience presented her with an opportunity to start her MSc program under the supervision of Drs. John Hanchar and Fernando Tornos at Memorial University of Newfoundland (in St. John’s, Canada).

Laura’s MSc project focuses on studying the eventuality of a genetic relationship between iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) and magnetite-apatite (MtAp) deposits. She examined samples from several ore deposits in northern Chile and southern Perú.

One of the more interesting locations investigated in her project is the Montecristo district in northern Chile, which has both types of mineralization. Analyses done in her MSc project include Re-Os dating of molybdenite, 40Ar-39Ar dating of actinolite, U-Pb dating and Hf tracer isotopes in zircon, and whole-rock sulfur, Pb, Sr, and Nd isotopes, and EPMA analyses of major and minor elements and X-ray maps of actinolite, and LA-ICPMS analyses of trace elements in actinolite.

The results will help identifying chronological and geochemical similarities in the IOCG and MtAp mineralization types, and determining if they are related or not, as well as finding out if there is a spatial and/or temporal relationship between the Chile and Perú locations.

The results from this study will contribute to our understanding of these type of deposits in South America and will be useful for mineral exploration purposes elsewhere in South America and globally.