Patent pending on copper exploration using isotopes in surface water

Patent pending on copper exploration using isotopes in surface water

Professor of Geology LeeAnn Munk, Ph.D., filed her first U.S. patent application this summer on a new method of copper ore deposit exploration. She and her colleague Ryan Mathur of Juaniata College in Pennsylvania have been developing the technique at the Pebble site in southwest Alaska.

Traditionally, copper deposits have been narrowed in on first through aerial geophysical exploration, followed by soil samples and hard rock drilling. The method Munk has helped develop, however, instead measures copper isotope levels in areas with surface water. Collecting and analyzing water samples is a much less expensive option than drilling and much more precise at determining the magnitude of copper deposits in a particular area based on the isotope signature found.

This new exploration tool could be applied worldwide and for other metallic ore deposits, but it is important to Alaska, in particular, because most remaining undiscovered copper deposits are concealed and hard to detect through conventional means.