Ville J Virtanen, Henri MA Höytiä, Giada Iacono-Marziano, Shenghong Yang, Marko Moilanen, Tuomo Törmänen

Assessing the potential of Komatiites as source rocks for Ni-Cu-PGE magmatic sulfide deposits

This work exploits the close spatiotemporal association of komatiites from the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt in Lapland, Finland (Paleoproterozoic- 2.05 Ga) to sulfur (S)-rich country rocks to assess their potential as source rocks for Cu-Ni(-PGE) deposits.

Our scientists combined new data, with literature databases to perform thermodynamic modelling of the parental melts, degree of partial melting and crystal fractionation paths showing that komatiitic parental melts can form either Ni-rich or Cu-rich sulfide melts, depending on the initial Ni and S content of the parental melt.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00410-024-02154-9