As a Provincial Geochemist with the BC Geological Survey, Alexei Rukhlov unfolds an isotopic story from carbonatite hosts of critical minerals. He uses state-of-the-art analytical tools to develop tried and true geochemical prospecting techniques suitable for overburden-covered areas.
From his recent collaborative projects, Alexei ranks as the most fruitful the real-time mapping of mercury vapour haloes in near-surface air above buried ore deposits and fault zones, tracing mineralization under cover using lead isotopes in overburden and surface water, discriminating barren rocks versus most of ore deposit-types using trace elements in apatite, applications to detrital apatite grains from tills, and estimating prognostic geochemical resources using modern drainages.
