Biography:
Kiera Broda is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at McGill University under the supervision of Dr. Anthony Williams-Jones. Since 2014, Kiera has worked on several ultramafic-mafic nickel sulphide projects including the Nickel Shäw Deposit (Nickel Creek Platinum Corp.) and most recently the Turnagain Deposit (Giga Metals Corp.). Kiera’s passion for geology began in childhood and transitioned to an academic focus on signing up for a B.Sc. in geoscience at Vancouver Island University.
Project: Magmatic or Hydrothermal? Processes Controlling Base Metal Sulphide Mineralization in the Alaskan-type Ultramafic-mafic Turnagain Complex, British Columbia
The Turnagain Alaskan-type Ultramafic Complex in British Columbia’s Northwest Region is an unusual example of an Alaskan-type complex in that it hosts a large nickel sulphide resource. Magmatic processes have been invoked to explain the sulphide mineralization in this complex, however, textural evidence of silicate and sulphide replacement indicate that hydrothermal processes have played an important role in the mobilization of nickel and other elements. To better understand the contribution of magmatic and hydrothermal processes to the nickel mineralization, this research will use detailed petrography, mineral and bulk rock chemistry, and stable isotopes (sulphur, iron, nickel, oxygen, hydrogen) to reconstruct the genesis of the Turnagain deposit. Using these methods, the deportment of nickel and other elements in the silicate and sulphide minerals will be evaluated, assessing the extent to which these elements have experienced remobilization. As the metal tenor strongly affects the metal recoverability, this research is important from an economic perspective.
