Product catalogue
Germanium, indium, gallium and cadmium in zinc ores: a mineral system approach
Sphalerite is the main Zn ore mineral and is the primary source of Cd, Ge and In and a minor source of Ga. Owing to a shift from fossil fuel to renewable energy sources, these four minor elements have progressively become more important to the economy. Despite this, resources of Cd, Ga, Ge and In are rarely reported as these metals are not considered material to the economics of resource development. As a result, the distribution of these elements between and within deposits is poorly known, and national and international resources are largely unreported.
Following previous studies, we have compiled analytical data for Cd, Ga, Ge and In from sphalerite and used global and local ore geochemical datasets to assess geochemical controls on the concentration of these elements in Zn deposits. Our results are similar to previous studies and suggest that lower-temperature deposits are enriched in Ge whereas higher-temperature deposits are enriched in In. However, modelling of hydrothermal geochemistry indicates other factors are important in concentrating these metals. In particular, the oxidation state of the fluid (oxidised versus reduced) and the depositional mechanisms also have a strong influence in Ga, Ge and In enrichment. Reduction of oxidised fluids is particularly effective in depositing Ge, whereas cooling very effectively deposits In and, in some cases, Ge. As a consequence, some higher-temperature deposits (e.g. high sulfidation epithermal and some volcanic-hosted massive sulfide) deposits can be Ge-enriched, and some lower-temperature deposits (e.g. siliciclastic-carbonate shale-hosted deposits) can be enriched in In.
Using the existing ore geochemical data and calculated characteristic Ge/Zn and In/Zn ratios, indicative estimates have been made on the endowment of Australian Zn deposits of Ge and In. These estimates highlight the potential of the North Australian Zinc Belt for Ge and for VHMS deposits for In. Although there is a large amount of uncertainty in the estimates, they are indicative of the potential for these metals in Australia.
<b>Citation:</b> Huston, D. L., & Bastrakov, E. (2024). Germanium, indium, gallium and cadmium in zinc ores: a mineral system approach. <i>Australian Journal of Earth Sciences</i>, 71(8), 1125–1155.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2023-07-10T13:49:00
- Date (Publication)
- 2024-12-04T23:20:07
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/150175
Identifier
- Codespace
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Digital Object Identifier
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Publisher Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Author Huston, D.
MEG Internal Contact Author Bastrakov, E.
MEG Internal Contact
- Name
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Australian Journal of Earth Sciences
- Issue identification
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Vol 71 Issue 8
- Page
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1125-1155
- Purpose
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Paper to be submitted to Australian Journal of Earth Sciences
- Status
- Completed
- Point of contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Hawkins, S.
MEG Internal Contact Resource provider Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division
External Contact
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
Resource format
- Title
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Product data repository: Various Formats
- Website
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Data Store directory containing the digital product files
Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes
- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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GEOLOGY
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GEOCHEMISTRY
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EARTH SCIENCES
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Inorganic Geochemistry
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- Feature type
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Sphalerite
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- Feature type
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Zinc deposits
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- Feature type
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Cadmium
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- Feature type
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Gallium
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- Feature type
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Germanium
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- Feature type
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Indium
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- Keywords
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Published_External
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Resource constraints
- Title
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
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CC-BY
- Edition
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4.0
- Access constraints
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© 2024 crown copyright in the commonwealth of Australia, Geoscience Australia
Resource constraints
- Title
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Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Associated resource
- Association Type
- Was informed by
- Title
-
Germanium, indium, gallium and cadmium in zinc ores: a mineral system approach
- Citation identifier
- 148619
- Citation identifier
- 3665cf13-a425-40be-862e-f902eecb7457
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice facsimile
- OnLine resource
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Link to Journal
Link to Journal
- Distribution format
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Resource lineage
- Statement
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Paper to be submitted to Australian Journal of Earth Sciences
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
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urn:uuid/503db95d-1373-4984-830f-0c12999f96f2
- Title
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GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Hawkins, S.
MEG Internal Contact Owner Rowland, J
Internal Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
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Journal Article
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
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Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/150175
- Date info (Creation)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
- Date info (Revision)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
Metadata standard
- Title
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AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-3
- Title
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Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014
- Edition
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Version 2.0, September 2018
- Citation identifier
- https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551