The past and present research of Eva Schandl (see List of Publications) complements the contract work she does for mining / exploration companies and exploration geologists. Her speciality is, identifying alteration haloes around all types of ore deposits, determining the paragenesis of the ore with respect to replacement minerals, and identifying favorable environments for ore deposition. Although most of the work requested by clients involves in-depth mineralogy, petrography, and interpretation, the reports are often accompanied by geochemical interpretation (when chemical data is available), and on occasions, by fluid inclusion microthermometry. There is nothing quite as rewarding as applying accepted – and sometimes vigorously debated theories to the real world of rocks!
As a consultant, she has worked on a wide variety of ore deposits during the past 25 years. Her past and present projects include ore deposits from Mali, the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Guyana, Nicaragua, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Equador, Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, Sweden, Finland, Turkey, China, as well as from various parts of Australia, the US and Canada. It is not possible to list all ore deposits and prospects she had been involved with, but some of the better known deposits are listed here. VMS: Kidd Creek, Geco, Winston Lake (Superior Province, Canada), San Nicolas (Mexico), SEDEX: Sullivan mine Zn-Pb (British Columbia), MOLYBDENUM: Kitsault mine (British Columbia), MAGMATIC SULFIDES: Sudbury (Ontario), Voisey’s Bay (Newfoundland), Ronnesbäcken (Sweden), Decar (British Columbia), Ni-LATERITES: Sechol deposit (Guatemala), PORPHYRY Cu: Cuajone mine (Peru), Refugio mine (Chile), Rosemont (Arizona), GOLD (mesothermal, epithermal, etc.): Hemlo, Red Lake mine (Ontario), Dome Mine (Ontario), Tarmoola mine (Australia), Muruntau & Kumtor mines (Uzbekistan), Sulphur Rose (Guyana), Geita, Kukuluma (Tanzania), Bombore (Burkina Faso), Mansourah (Saudi Arabia), SKARNS: Nuestra Senora (Mexico), Rosemont (Arizona – partly a porphyry-Cu), RARE EARTH MINERALS: Lofdal carbonatites (Namibia), Strange Lake (Ontario-Quebec), ASBESTOS: Munro Mine (Ontario), Cassiar (British Columbia), and numerous other deposits of various types…
Some of her contract work is unrelated to ore deposits. She was recently invited to participate in a 2-year project, involving a detailed study of the mineralogy and texture of drill core samples from the Bruce nuclear site in Ontario. The site was evaluated for building a Deep Geologic Repository (DGR) to store low and intermediate-level radioactive waste. Petrography and mineralogy played an important part in evaluating the suitability of the host rocks.
Other non-ore related projects included i.e. 1) investigating the cause of erosion in parts of the Churchill Falls hydro power station and dam in Newfoundland, 2) identifying the cause of erosion in Ontario government limestone buildings, 3) evaluating “soapstone” mineralogy of quarried material to be used for building fireplaces in New England, and identifying potentially harmful samples with asbestos, and so on…
One of the most versatile group of rocks Eva had worked with, came from the Lake Nipigon region in Ontario. It was a mineralogical / petrographic study on >250 thin sections. The variably metamorphosed rocks represented the West-Central and the Northwest Nipigon embayment. The project was part of the Lake Nipigon Region Geoscience Initiative (LNRGI), supported and released by the Ontario Geological Survey as: OGS MRD 156 & OGS MRD 141.