The University of Western Australia

PhD position (full-time, 3.5 years) at the Univeristy of Western Australia - School of Earth and Oceans - Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET).

This is your chance to join groundbreaking research at the nexus between earth sciences and mineral exploration and to become part of a passionate and international team of researchers with whom you will be actively working to integrate your research with the larger Yilgarn 2030 modules and objectives.

Homepage: https://www.cet.edu.au/

Title: “Unravelling gold mineralisation footprints”

Background:

PhD opportunity as part of Yilgarn 2030, a collaborative research initiative on the Archean Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. Such initiative offers a novel, multi-disciplinary approach to investigate gold mineralising systems across the Eastern Goldfields Superterrane using a scale-integrated, multi-disciplinary approach. The generation of pre-competitive data and concepts during this collaborative research project aims at supporting exploration strategies.

📘 PhD project rationale:

One of the key challenges faced by explorers in mature gold camps across the Yilgarn Craton lies in deciphering the camp-scale mineralisation footprints (e.g. structural, stratigraphic, geochemical, geophysical) and vectors towards (higher-grade) gold mineralisation(s). By integrating such critical knowledge into exploration strategies, mining operations and exploration teams would have better tools to target concealed lodes within the mine and extend their search to brownfield areas in a more efficient and predictive way.

PhD project highlights:

⚒️ Fieldwork (regional / open pit / underground)

🛰️ Structural geophysics

🎯 Structural analysis in a near-mine setting

🧪 Whole-Rock & mineral geochemistry

🔬 Petrography

⏳ U-Pb zircon dating

🧩 PhD project objectives:

• Build a robust structural framework for selected deposits and/or camps.
• Unravel the paragenetic sequence of events (e.g. metamorphic, magmatic, mineralisation) from the micro to outcrop scale.
• Undertake in-situ dating of gold mineralisation event(s) and anchor deformation phase(s) into a regional deformation scheme.
• Develop a toolkit to help explorers be more predictive when targeting gold mineralisation(s).

🌐 Specific project requirements:

• MSc. degree (or equivalent) in a relevant discipline of geoscience
• Ability to facilitate and undertake geological fieldwork
• Demonstrated experience in applied structural geology
• Some experience in the geological interpretation of geophysical datasets appreciated
• Some experience in geochemical data analysis and/or petrography appreciated
• Demonstrated communication, teamwork and leadership skills
• Preparedness to work extensively in a site-based environment and integrate with the existing exploration/geological team

Contact me as soon as soon as possible by e-mail

Please attach your CV and MSc. academic transcript to the e-mail

Quentin Masurel

Hammond-Nisbet Fellow

The University of Western Australia

School of Earth and Oceans - Centre for Exploration Targeting

E-mail: quentin.masurel@uwa.edu.au