Timescales of Mineral Systems Group

Prof. Chris Kirkland operating the SHRIMP at Curtin University
Naukluft Mountains in Namibia
Single crystal of zircon in cross-polarized light
Mountain lake in Glacier National Park, USA
Small augen of quartz in schist, Namibia
Laser ablation GeoHistory Facility, Curtin University
Helicopter is the only mode of transport in East Greenland
Dr Janne Liebmann exploring in Teton Range National Park, USA
Volcano in Ethiopia
Cathodoluminescence images of zircon grains
Bunbury Basalt columns in southwestern Australia
Monolith in Ghana
Sulfur river through Yellowstone National Park, USA
Basalt colonnade in Yellowstone National Park, USA

Est. in 2015, the Timescales of Mineral Systems Group combines >40 years of experience in innovative geochemistry and geochronology pertinent to geological processes underpinning mineral endowment. Packaged as ChronoTrace, we apply isotopic tools to resolve geological uncertainty via customised projects with accessible outputs to meet industry needs. Reduce your exploration risk by understanding your mineral system.

Meet the team In the media Projects Publications Software Seminars Contact Us

Drive your exploration success with ChronoTrace

Reduce your exploration risk by understanding your mineral system with ChronoTrace.

Contextualise

Minerals are identified, contextualised and quantified using automated mineral analysis.

Analyse

State-of-the-art instruments rapidly and accurately analyse targeted minerals, obtaining age, geochemical, and isotopic signatures.

Report

Timely, accessible reports enable informed exploration decisions.

ChronoTrace: tools and focus

  • U/Pb geochronology (zircon, baddeleyite, monazite, titanite, rutile, apatite and more)
  • Lu/Hf isotope geochemistry (zircon, baddeleyite)
  • Pb/Pb isotope geochemistry (K-feldspar, whole-rock, sulphides)
  • In situ Rb/Sr geochronology (biotite, muscovite, K-feldspar)
  • Sm/Nd and Rb/Sr isotope geochemistry (whole-rock and mineral)
  • Trace elements (all minerals)
  • (U–Th)/He thermochronology (zircon, apatite).
  • Wide range of other isotopic techniques for dating geological material and fluid source tracing.

Applications of ChronoTrace

  • Direct and indirect dating of host rock, deformation, mineralisation and alteration
  • Spatial and temporal distribution of crustal anomalies (conduits)
  • Provenance and crustal/basin evolution
  • Fingerprinting mineralization, isotopic characteristics and revealing ore deposit evolution

ChronoTrace example: Isotopic mapping of the crust

Animation of Hf isotopic signature in zircon grains across South Western Australia over nearly two thousand million years. Those areas highlighted in red indicate new mantle input, consistent with extension on the margin of the ancient Yilgarn Craton and development of an ocean on its eastern side.

”Strategies towards robust interpretations…” series

Our group is proud to present a series of open access best practice papers on isotopic and geochronologic analyses. These publications draw on our combined decade-long expertise in isotope geochemistry and geochronology, offering a comprehensive synthesis of analytical approaches, data reduction and validation methods, visualization strategies, and data reporting recommendations. The goal of this series is to support practitioners in achieving robust and reproducible results while promoting data transparency across the scientific community.

Explore the full collection of papers here.

Our projects

Click on our publications!