Dr. Chris Ingles
Chris Ingles
Research Technical Advisor
Doctor of Philosophy, Earth Sciences (ANU)
email chris.ingles@anu.edu.au

Content navigation

Affiliations

science Research area
  Groups

Research interests

My research is in geochemistry and primarily focusses on cation behaviour and sulfur isotopes 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 (ZnS);
  • Experimental sulfide synthesis (e.g. sphalerite, pyrite, chalcopyrite);
  • Using cation concentrations to distinguish environmental conditions (e.g. fS2, fO2) during ore formation;
  • Maintaining a sphalerite database of 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 of elements in sulfides (e.g. ionic coordination, orbital hybridisation);
  • The analysis and synthesis of sulfide calibration standards for laser ablation mass spectrometry (e.g. LA-ICP-MS).

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 Nd and Y in monazite and xenotime in the regolith";
  • 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.

     

Location

J1 Building, Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University

Publications

Journal Articles:

Ingles, C., Mavrogenes, J., Wang, Y., Cherdantseva, M., Saxey, D., Fougerouse, D. (2026). Biogenic sphalerite signatures and pH-dependent precipitation pathways, Applied Geochemistry, 197, 106677. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2026.106677

Christopher H. Ingles, John A. Mavrogenes, Nicholas D. Tailby, Jeremy L. Wykes (2024); Arsenic K-edge and Thallium L3-edge XANES, with XFM imaging and LA-ICP-MS to determine oxidation states and distribution in sphalerite. Chemical Geology; 670, 122441. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2024.122441

Christopher H. Ingles, John A. Mavrogenes (2021); Cationic substitutions in sphalerite from the Porgera mine, Papua New Guinea. The Canadian Mineralogist; 59 (3): 573–587. doi: https://doi.org/10.3749/canmin.2000085

 

Commissioned Industry Report:

Chris Ingles (2023); Sphalerite report for the Geological Survey of Queensland, Commissioned Industry Report for the Geological Survey of Queensland, CR148692. https://geoscience.data.qld.gov.au/data/report/cr148692

 

Conference Presentations:

Chris Ingles (2022); Inferring ore deposit types and redox conditions from sphalerite (ZnS), GSQ Technical Workshop for Industry, Townsville, Jul 13, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifcGeyA2sws&t=2445s