Ed Saunders

Associate Lecturer

Contact Details

Office :
Phone : 61-(0)2-9850 8416
Fax : 61-(0)2-9850 6904
email : ed.saunders@mq.edu.au

J. Edward Saunders
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems (CCFS), GEMOC
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Macquarie University
North Ryde,
NSW 2109
AUSTRALIA

In 2014, I was employed by Macquarie University as an associate lecturer and an early career researcher. I teach and convene number of undergraduate- and masters-level courses while continuing my research with CCFS into the mobility of chalcophile elements in the upper mantle.

PhD Project

Title: The Nature, Abundance and Mobility of Gold in the Lithospheric Mantle (Accepted May 2014)

My PhD investigated the nature, abundance and mobility of gold in the upper mantle. This research focussed on in situ analysis of sulfide grains in upper mantle peridotites, and found that gold was very heterogeneous as a result of its mobility in fluids. These results are important for understanding sulfide metasomatism in the upper mantle, and the role that process plays in the ore formation process. This has important implications for understanding the fluid flux within the lithospheric mantle. This thesis was completed in 2013, and the presented some of the results at the Goldschmidt Conference in August that same year.

Supervisors:

Associate Professor Norman Pearson
Professor Suzanne Y. O’Reilly
Professor William Griffin

Research Interests:

Mantle petrology and geochemistry, metallogeny and crust-mantle relationships

Publications:

Conference abstracts:

Saunders, J. E., Pearson, N. J. & O'Reilly, S. Y. (2011). Gold mobility in the mantle: Constraints from sulfides in pyroxenites and peridotites. Goldschmidt Conference. Prague, Czech Republic: Mineralogical Magazine, 1802.

Saunders, J. E., Pearson, N. J., O'Reilly, S. Y. & Griffin, W. L. (2012). Gold mobility in the mantle: Constraints from sulfides in variably metasomatised peridotites. 34th International Geological Congress. Brisbane, Australia.

Saunders, J. E., Pearson, N. J., O'Reilly, S. Y. & Griffin, W. L. (2013). Mobility of Au in the mantle. Goldschmidt Conference. Florence, Italy: Mineralogical Magazine, 2140.

Background

Ed Saunders completed his BSc (Hons) with a major in geology at the University of Western Australia in 2006. After graduation, he worked as an exploration geologist for a junior mining company in the Pilbara region for three years before commencing a PhD with GEMOC/ CCFS in 2010

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