Host Maxwell Porter is joined by two experts to explore the geological and tectonic evolution of the iconic Laramide Porphyry Copper Province, focusing on its complex geodynamic history and the key exploration criteria that define this world-class copper belt. Our guests share complementary academic and industry perspectives, offering insights drawn from decades of research and field experience.

The Geological Framework and Exploration vectors in the Globe-Miami District

Our first guest is Dr. Robert Lee. Robert earned his PhD at Oregon State University studying the El Salvador porphyry copper deposit in Chile. He then joined Freeport-McMoRan as a greenfields exploration geologist working across North America, the Philippines, and Europe. In 2014, he moved to UBC’s MDRU, leading and contributing to research projects on tools to vector towards economic ore deposits, across the Western Tethyan Belt to the Andes and British Columbia. Since 2022, Robert has been a Principal Geoscientist with BHP’s Generative Porphyry Copper team. His expertise centers on porphyry copper formation, mineral chemistry, and innovative tools for exploration, including zircon as a vector to ore.

Tectonic controls on porphyry deposit formation in Arizona

Our second guest is Professor Thomas Lamont. Thomas is a structural geologist and petrologist whose work links tectonics, crustal evolution, and the formation of major ore systems. His research combines field mapping with advanced analytical tools, from EPMA and thermobarometry to isotopic and geochronological techniques. He completed his DPhil at the University of Oxford, investigating how the Cycladic Islands in Greece evolved from a compressional to an extensional tectonic regime. In a later postdoctoral role, he focused on the Laramide porphyry province of the southwestern United States, showing how flat-slab subduction drove water-fluxed melting and porphyry copper formation. Thomas now leads research into how subduction geometry shapes the thermal and mechanical state of the lithosphere and its mineral endowment in addition to other topics, as an assistant professor of Structural Geology and Tectonics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

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Theme music is  Confluence by Eastwinds

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