6:00 PM: Mexican food and sides ~ Tariff (if eating) $15.00

Contact Freddie Smith for Reservations / Cancellations at 312-842-7100 or Freddie@mcri.org by Noon THURSDAY, April 29, 2016

7:00 PM: Presentation
Gold is most often found in nature as pure metallic gold and is commonly associated with Cu- and Fe- bearing sulfide minerals. The state of Nevada hosts a major gold district that has yielded over $200 billion worth of gold at today's prices. The gold in that district is referred to as "invisible" because it occurs as nanometer to micrometer sized grains within larger Fe-sulfide crystals. The prevailing thought has been that the gold and sulfide minerals just happen to form at the same time and in the same place, however, recent analyses of natural samples and experimental work has noted that some proportion of the gold could have been contained within the structures of the sulfide minerals as those minerals formed. This talk will focus on the experimental and analytical methods (electron microprobe, SEM, TEM, SIMS, LA-ICP-MS, etc.) used to characterize the nanometer to micrometer-sized gold grains and what they can tell us about the formation of gold-rich ore deposits.

Bio Sketch:Mark Frank is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Geochemistry from the State University of New York College at Fredonia in 1994. Mark earned his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 1996 and 2001, respectively. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington from 2001 to 2003 and has been on the Faculty at Northern Illinois University since 2003. He teaches a wide range of classes devoted to mineralogy, geochemistry and petrology and conducts research in planetary geology and metallic ore deposits.

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