My research is in geochemistry and primarily focusses on cation behaviour in sphalerite (ZnS) to aid critical metal exploration and extraction. This includes:

• The localisation and abundance of critical metals, such as indium, gallium, germanium, arsenic, antimony and manganese;
• Investigating oxidation states and constraints on elements recovered from sphalerite;
• Using cation concentrations to distinguish environmental conditions (e.g. fS₂, fO₂) during ore formation;
• The construction of a sphalerite database containing 200 sphalerites from 60+ ore deposits and meteorites worldwide;
• Novel mineralisation mechanisms.

Secondary research includes:

• Quantifying ratios of stable sulfur isotopes to infer biogenic sulfide deposition;
• Lattice constructs and bonding arrangements (incl. orbtal hybridisation) of elements in sulfides;
• The analysis and synthesis of sulfide calibration standards for laser ablation mass spectrometry (e.g. LA-ICP-MS);
• Experimental synthesis of sulfides containing metallic solid solutions.

Successful X-ray Absorption Near Edge Spectroscopy (XANES) experiments:

• Project lead: "Speciation of Arsenic and Thallium in Sphalerite (ZnS)";
• Project lead: "Iron oxidation states in sphalerite: a redox study on different ore deposit types";
• Assisted: "Characterisation of garnet related to critical metal-enriched U-REE-Cu-Au mineralisation in Queensland, Australia";
• Assisted: "XFM mapping of Fe and Eu valences in apatite".

Successful Atom Probe Tomography experiment:

• 3D mapping of atoms in high-As, high-Tl sphalerite.