Yamila Cajal Contreras

Contacts
After finishing my bachelor in Geology at the Universidad de Concepcion (Chile), I have been working in copper-gold mining and mineral exploration, both at the industry and at the academia. I did my undergrad research thesis in the possible extension of the middle Eocene to early Oligocene Cu-metallogenic belt in northern Chile in partnership with Anglo American Exploration.
As part of my PhD, I am currently working in the Platinum Group Elements (PGE) geochemistry applied to the study of Cu-Au magma fertility of Porphyry Copper Deposits from the Andes of Central Chile. In this project, I am working in collaboration with CODELCO and the Chilean Geological Survey. I have been recently awarded the Graduate Student Fellowship (GSF) and two Student Research Grants (SRG) by the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) Foundation.
Research interests
I am interested in the application and combination of field-observations, petrology, geochemistry and geochronology to the study of ore deposits and their metallogenic processes, particularly in the study of copper and gold deposits.
I am currently working in the geochemistry of the Platinum Group Elements (PGE) applied to the prediction of copper-gold fertility in mountain belts, with focus in the Andes of Central Chile. This project is supervised by Professor Ian Campbell:
Groups
- Student, Experimental Petrology
Conference papers
Cajal, Y. & Campbell, I. (2019) Platinum-group elements as a tracer of sulphide saturation in evolving magmas: application to the Rio Blanco Cu-porphyry deposit, central Chile. 15th Biennial Meeting of the Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits (SGA). Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Cajal, Y., Rabbia, O. & Valencia, V. (2015) New magmatic-hydrothermal antecedents from the Oligocene to Miocene in the Andes of northern Chile (latitude 21° to 18°S). XIV Chilean Geological Conference. La Serena, Chile.
Cajal, Y. & Rabbia, O. (2015) Criteria to define exploration targets in the northern extension (latitude 21° to 18°S) of the Eocene to Oligocene metallogenic belt, northern Chile. XIV Chilean Geological Conference. La Serena, Chile.
Demonstrator
2022 Magmatism and Metamorphism (EMSC3024)
2019-2021 Earth: The Chemistry and Physics of our Planet (EMSC1008)
2019-2020 Fundamentals of Geology (EMSC2023)
2018, 2021 The Blue Planet: An Introduction to Earth System Science (EMSC1006)
2018 Economic Geology (EMSC3007)