Stefanie M. Brueckner

Ore or mineral deposits are accumulations of metals well above their crustal abundance. Human kind has been exploiting these metal accumulations for thousands of years. Today's technology-advanced society could not live without them depending on computers, cell phones, cars and other amenities too much. We depend on these metal resources  but exploration has become more difficult over the last decades. Hence finding new deposits is at the forefront of the mining industry. Research plays an integral part to understand how and in which tectonic setting the different ore deposit types form.

 

My research focuses on hydrothermal ore deposits, a deposit sub-class formed by hot fluids varying in pH, redox state, sulfur fugacity, salinity, and metal and vapor content formed in various settings including orogenic belts, on and below the seafloor, sedimentary basins and shallow volcanic arcs. My particular interest lies on how metals are transported in these fluids, what mechanisms favor transport and deposition, how sulfides vary in their compositional and isotope make-up among these deposits, and how this knowledge can be applied to exploration.

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Additionally, I'm interested in regional exploration using field work and analytical methods to constrain areas hosting potential future mineral deposits.