Farhad Bouzari

Biography

I am an economic geologist with interest in porphyry copper and allied hydrothermal deposits. I received my B.Sc. in geology from Mashhad University, Iran, and M.Sc. (MinEx) and Ph.D. (2003) from Queen’s University, Canada. My Ph.D. research work was on hypogene and supergene evolution of the Cerro Colorado Cu-Mo porphyry deposit in Chile. Following an assistant professorship at the University of Tehran, Iran, I joined MDRU in 2006 as a research associate. Since then, I have been involved in several projects and supervising graduate students largely to map alteration and mineral footprints in various settings, e.g., at Red Lake lode gold deposit, Ontario, El Galeno Cu-Au porphyry and Hilorico Au epithermal deposits, northern Peru, Highland Valley Cu-Mo and Woodjam Cu-Au-Mo porphyry deposits, BC. More recently, I am working to develop new exploration technique to aid exploration in covered areas using porphyry indicator minerals and assess porphyry fertility of plutonic rocks.  I am an economic geologist with interest in porphyry copper and allied hydrothermal deposits. I received my B.Sc. in geology from Mashhad University, Iran, and M.Sc. (MinEx) and Ph.D. (2003) from Queen’s University, Canada. My Ph.D. research work was on hypogene and supergene evolution of the Cerro Colorado Cu-Mo porphyry deposit in Chile. Following an assistant professorship at the University of Tehran, Iran, I joined MDRU in 2006 as a research associate. Since then, I have been involved in several projects and supervising graduate students largely to map alteration and mineral footprints in various settings, e.g., at Red Lake lode gold deposit, Ontario, El Galeno Cu-Au porphyry and Hilorico Au epithermal deposits, northern Peru, Highland Valley Cu-Mo and Woodjam Cu-Au-Mo porphyry deposits, BC. More recently, I am working to develop new exploration technique to aid exploration in covered areas using porphyry indicator minerals and assess porphyry fertility of plutonic rocks. 

Research Interest

My main research interests are anatomy and evolution of the porphyry copper deposits particularly distal and deep features and their application in vectoring towards mineralization. I have also interest in developing new exploration techniques for exploring ore deposits in covered terrains and understand the supergene processes and mineralogy.   I am currently the principle investigator of the MDRU’s PIMS (porphyry indicator minerals) and Porphyry Fertility projects and a collaborator on the Western Tethyan Metallogeny project focusing on Iran.     Current Research:   Application of porphyry indicator minerals (PIMS) to contribute to exploration decision-making in much the same way that diamond exploration benefited from knowledge of accessory minerals and G10 garnets. This project characterizes the presence, abundance, relative proportions and compositions of PIMS, such as apatite, rutile, garnet, magnetite etc., from surficial materials to provide vectors toward concealed porphyry copper deposits. Currently, the project is focused on alkalic porphyry deposits, Mount Polley, Mount Milligan, Lorraine and Copper Mountain, in British Columbia.  Metallogeny of the Iran segment of the Tethyan orogen in order to characterize time-space distribution of porphyry copper and related ore deposits, petrochemistry of magmatic host rocks, uplift and erosional history. This includes largely the magmatic arc of the Urumieh-Dokhtar from SE of Iran, border to Pakistan, to the NW, border with Turkey.     Hypogene and supergene evolution of porphyry copper deposits, characteristics of porphyry clusters, ore-genetic relationship between calc-alkalic and alkalic deposits and in particular their distal and deep alteration footprints. Current research at Woodjam property, central BC and Copper Mountain, southern BC. Porphyry fertility project identifies field, mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of porphyry fertile plutons of British Columbia. Field and laboratory works aim to characterize physical and chemical features in common accessory minerals, e.g., apatite, titanite, zircon etc., that show evidence of magmatic processes such as high oxidation state, evidence of fluid saturation, magma fertilization by mafic melt injection, and sulphate saturation and depletion in the melt. This will allow us to construct a toolkit to provide a predictive decision-making framework to assess fertility in rocks, stream sediment and till heavy mineral concentrate. Research is focused on Takomkane, Guichon Creek and Granite Mountain batholiths and is supported by Geoscience BC. Assessing BC Porphyry Fertility using Zircons: This project develops an exploration tool using zircon geochemistry and texture to assess fertility of the British Columbia’s plutons for hosting porphyry copper deposits. Modern high resolution analytical techniques including U/Pb geochronology paired with Laser-ablation trace element analyses of zircon now permit distinguishing barren from fertile porphyry Cu-Mo-Au. This project aims to establish that zircon trace-element geochemistry can be combined in a practical, cost-effective manner to define discrete Cu-fertile porphyry mineralization epochs, and to differentiate those from periods or districts containing barren magmas. The project takes advantage of archived rocks and zircon separates at UBC.