Professor Gawen Jenkin

Professor Gawen Jenkin researches ore deposits that provide the mineral and metal resources for the green energy transformation. He has worked with industry partners on ore deposits from around the globe including copper in Cyprus and Botswana and gold in Scotland. He is now applying that expertise to understanding the sources of the hitherto little used metals that are now essential to the development of a carbon-neutral economy, in particular tellurium for solar panels.

Professor Jenkin is also researching novel approaches to extracting metals from ore and waste in a more sustainable way with novel environmentally-friendly solvents - a potential disruptive technology in the mineral processing and waste recycling industries. Through application of this technology he hopes to be able to decrease the environmental footprint of mining by recovering a wider range of metals from mined ore, and even to be able to extract metals without mining the ore at all.

Professor Jenkin is a board member for the Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Division of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists. He promotes science communication and was awarded a Distinguished University Teaching Fellowship in 2009 in recognition of imaginative teaching involvement in national initiatives which promote student learning in Geology, advised on the new specifications for A level and GCSE Geology exams, and worked in schools’ liaison for many years.

• Hydrothermal mineralisation, in particular gold in Scotland, Ghana, Mauritania, Tanzania, Ethiopia and the Solomon Islands.
• Stable and radiogenic isotopes in fluid-rock interaction and hydrothermal mineralisation.
• Mineral carbonation for CO2 sequestration.
• Sediments as paleoenvironmental indicators - trace element and isotope proxies, including selenium isotopes - in the Cariaco Basin and Neoproterozoic sequences in Ethiopia.

Stable and radiogenic isotopes in:

• Fluid-rock interaction and hydrothermal mineralisation.
• Retrograde isotope exchange processes and cooling and uplift of mountain belts.
• Sediments as palaeoenvironmental indicators, in particular in the Neoproterozoic pre-Snowball Earth period and the Jurassic.

Researcher ID: B-2647-2009 ORCID

Jenkin GRT, Lusty PAJ, McDonald I, Smith MP, Boyce AJ, Wilkinson JJ (eds) 2015. Ore Deposits in an Evolving Earth. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 393

Andrew J. Martin, Iain McDonald, Gawen R.T. JENKIN, Katie A. McFall, Adrian J. Boyce, John W. Jamieson and Christopher J. MacLeod. (2021). A missing link between active and ancient seafloor hydrothermal systems - Magmatic volatile influx in a mafic VMS: the exceptionally preserved Mala VMS deposit, Troodos, Cyprus. Chemical Geology, 567, 120127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2021.120127.

Francesca Bevan, Hanaa Galeb, Alexander Black, Ioanna Maria Pateli, Jack Allen, Magali Perez, Jörg Feldmann, Robert Harris, Gawen JENKIN, Andrew Abbott, and Jennifer Hartley (2021). A unified method for the recovery of metals from chalcogenides. Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, 9, 2929–2936. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c09120

Pateli IM, Abbott AP, JENKIN GRT, Hartley JM (2020). Electrochemical oxidation as alternative for dissolution of metal oxides in deep eutectic solvents. Green Chemistry, 22, 8360-8368. doi.org/10.1039/D0GC03491F

Hartley JM, Al-Bassam AZM, Harris RC, Frisch G, JENKIN GRT, Abbott AP (2020). Investigating the dissolution of iron sulfide and arsenide minerals in deep eutectic solvents. Hydrometallurgy, 105511. doi.org/10.1016/j.hydromet.2020.105511

Pateli IM, Thompson D, Alabdullah SSM, Abbott AP, JENKIN GRT, Hartley JR (2020). The effect of pH and hydrogen bond donor on the dissolution of metal oxides in deep eutectic solvents. Green Chemistry, 22, 5476-5486. DOI: doi.org/10.1039/D0GC02023K

Keith M, Smith DJ, Doyle K, Holwell DA, JENKIN GRT, Barry TL, Becker J, Rampe J (2020). Pyrite chemistry: A new window into Au-Te ore-forming processes in alkaline epithermal districts, Cripple Creek, Colorado. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, 274, 172-191.

Martin AJ, Keith M, Parvaz DB, McDonald I, Boyce AJ, McFall KA, JENKIN GRT, Strauss H, MacLeod CJ (2020). Effects of variable magmatic volatile influx in mafic VMS hydrothermal systems: evidence from the Troodos ophiolite, Cyprus. Chemical Geology, 531, 119325, 19 pp.

Emmings JF, Poulton SW, Vane CH, Davies SJ, JENKIN GRT, Stephenson MH, Leng MJ, Lamb AL, Moss-Hayes V (2020). A Mississippian black shale record of redox oscillation in the Craven Basin, UK. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 538, 109423, 25 pp.

Anggara S, Bevan D, Harris RC, Hartley JR, Frisch G, JENKIN GRT, Abbott AP (2019). Direct extraction of copper from copper sulfide minerals using deep eutectic solvents. Green Chemistry, 21, 6502-6512. DOI: doi-org.ezproxy3.lib.le.ac.uk/10.1039/C9GC03213D

• GL2106 Introductory Mineral Deposits
• GL2102 Sturucture and Tectonics
• GL4025 Ore Genesis
• Various field teaching – usually UK Field Course (Cornwall).

I was awarded a Distinguished University Teaching Fellowship at graduation July 2009, "In recognition of [his] inspiring and imaginative teaching and [his] involvement in national initiatives which promote student learning in Geology."

Indicators of Esteem

Recent keynotes and invited talks

• Extracting Future Mineral Resources with Cutting Edge Technologies Invited presentation. Future of Mining EMEA Conference September, 2019.
• Invited presentation. British-Finnish Natural Resources Initiative, March 2018
• Environmentally-benign technologies for metal recovery from ores and concentrates using novel solvents. Invited Keynote, British International session on behalf of Department for International Trade, PERUMIN International Mining Convention. September 2017
• Gold and by-product recovery from ores and concentrates using Deep Eutectic Solvent (DES) ionic liquids. Invited Keynote, Technical and Innovation session, PERUMIN International Mining Convention. September 2017
• Clean alternatives to the use of mercury and cyanide in gold metallurgy using ionic liquids. Invited Keynote. International Congress “Progress and alternatives in the application of clean technologies in the metallurgy of gold” National University San Agustin, Arequipa. May 2017
• By-product recovery of critical elements from ores and concentrates using deep eutectic solvent ionic liquids: BRIO. Invited Keynote, Irish Association for Economic Geology, Annual Conference 2016 ‘Critical rare materials – securing resources for the green energy revolution.’ May 2016
• Novel Environmentally-friendly Ore Processing Techniques for the 21st Century. Invited Keynote, PERUMIN International Mining Convention. September 2015

Conference Organisation

• Chair of the Scientific Programme. Biennial Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits (SGA) International Conference, Glasgow 2019. 700 delegates, 13 scientific themes, 500 papers, 1900 pages proceedings.
• Lead Convenor. Geological Society Fermor Flagship meeting "Ore Deposits in an Evolving Earth", Burlington House, London, 7-9th September, 2011.