Stefano Caruso

I conducted my PhD research at the University of Western Australia in collaboration with the CSIRO, and with the support of the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) and the Mineral Research Institute of Western Australia (MRIWA). The project aimed at developing new methodological approaches for the investigation of Archaean and Proterozoic mineral systems through the analysis of multiple sulfur isotopes. The study involved a broad range of mineralisation, including orogenic gold deposits, komatiite-hosted sulfide deposits, and volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposits with the aim of addressing many longstanding knowledge gaps pertaining ore forming processes at both the deposit and the regional scale.

In the framework of the ARC Discovery Project titled 'A terrestrial hot spring setting for the origin of life?', I am investigating the geological, geochemical, and metallogenic aspects of a 3.5 billion-year-old hot spring setting in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. This work aims at understanding the 4-dimensional evolution of the Dresser Caldera in regards to the mobilisation of metals by the hydrothermal fluids. This project is based on the characterisation of the alteration imparted by hydrothermal fluids to the host-rocks through a combination of field mapping, hyper-spectral maps, whole-rock, XRD, and stable Li and B isotope analyses of newly collected samples. This large and multi-disciplinary dataset has been translated into a holistic model able to (i) constrain the conditions at which metals and other relevant elements were mobilised, and (ii) identify the structural and geochemical settings that allowed their accumulation.