Lithium and lasers: Fresh approaches to unearthing the white gold
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Technical Meeting Wednesday, 28th January 2026 at 18:00 hours at the at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews, Room Lecture Theatre A, Bute Building, Queen’s Terrace, St Andrews, KY16 9TS Lithium and lasers: Fresh approaches to unearthing the white gold presented by Nick Gardiner, Senior Lecturer, School of Earth and Environmental Science, University of St Andrews. Synopsis: The transition to a renewable energy system for the generation, transmission, and storage of electricity, requires an unprecedented supply of key metals, in particular the so-called “battery metals” tin and lithium. These metals are primarily sourced from magmatic-hydrothermal deposits, most notably small-scale deposits known as pegmatites. Here, we discuss how in a global mining context these battery metals are relatively minor, with a fragile supply pipeline. We discuss the current rush for lithium and focus on current research on lithium pegmatites: how new geochemical tools can help shed light on the processes of mineralization, to help us build better models for the formation and discovery of these enigmatic deposits. Speaker Biography: Nick Gardiner is a petrologist and geochemist, working on crustal evolution processes. His research focus is on granite-hosted critical mineral deposits in Myanmar, Rwanda and South Africa, being more recently focused on lithium projects in Zimbabwe and Namibia. He studied Earth Sciences at Oxford University, did a Geochemistry MSc at Leeds, and returned to Oxford for a DPhil in metamorphic petrology and isotope geochemistry. After working in commodities trading for nearly a decade, he returned to academia with various research positions, before joining St Andrews in 2019 Online: If you are unable to make the meeting in person, the presentation will also be online via MS Teams, using the following meeting link: teams.microsoft.com/meet/39281522972222?p=5nNtj3UHytHVxtZek4 Meeting ID: 392 815 229 722 22 Passcode: Mf3z9EE3
