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Congratulations to PhD student, Collette Pilsworth, on receiving two best poster awards.

Collette won the PhD Category for the 2022 Keating-Boyle Award, given out by the Mineral Deposits Division of the Geological Association of Canada, during the 2022 GAC MAC conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The title of the poster is “Fracture fill mineralogy and chemistry from the Oberon gold deposit, Northern Territory, Australia”.

This poster highlights a section of Collette’s current PhD research in collaboration with Newmont Corporation, studying the chemistry and mineralogy of fracture coatings in drill cores surrounding the Oberon gold deposit in the Northern Territory of Australia. This research shows that fracture coatings record the dispersion of pathfinder elements near the Oberon gold deposit, which enhances the size of the deposit footprint and overall reduces the search space for mineral exploration.

Collette also won the PDAC- SEG student minerals colloquium PhD poster prize, and placed first during the 2022 PDAC conference in Toronto, Ontario. The title of that poster is, “A tool for the exploration of undercover ore deposits: Laser ablation ICP-MS method for the in-situ measurement of element contents and Pb isotope ratios on fracture coatings".

This poster highlights a section of Collette’s current PhD research, focused on using image mapping LA-ICP-MS for measuring element contents and 207Pb/206Pb in-situ on fracture coatings. As fractures provide permeable pathways for the migration of mobile ions from mineralization into the surrounding rocks and overburden, this can leave behind a distinct mineralogical and geochemical coating on the fracture surface. These fracture coatings can provide evidence of proximal mineralization, which can be used as a vector for exploration. The development of this LA-ICP-MS method provides a new geochemical tool that can be used by the mining industry for future mineral exploration.

A complete list of PDAC student award winners is available on the  website.

Congratulations, Collette, on both awards!