Dr Ria Mukherjee

Lecturer in Earth Science - School of Environmental and Rural Science

Biography

Ria is a Lecturer in Earth Sciences in the School of Environmental and Rural Science. She has a bachelors, masters and PhD from India. Her research is focused on understanding the key magmatic processes linked to the formation of critical metals of Cr, Ni, Ti-V, and the platinum-group elements (PGEs). Her research aims to help in exploration of these resources, which aligns with the Australian Critical Mineral strategy 2023-2030 and support the endeavour of maintaining sustainable supply chains of these metals. These resources are significant as they support the transition to greener energy, especially in the production of batteries, which are crucial in the manufacture of EV’s. Her interest is also to use these ores of critical metals as tools to fingerprint the chemical and geodynamic evolution of the Earth. Her strengths and skills are field geology, petrology and geochemistry that is used extensively to solve her research questions.

Qualifications

PhD, Jadavpur University (India)

Research Interests

I’m interested in understanding the genesis of critical metals, especially investigating the complex crust-mantle processes and fluid/rock interactions that lead to the formation of the ores of chromite, nickel-sulfides, platinum-group elements (PGEs), and magnetite. These processes need to be characterised for future exploration of these resources. I’m also interested in using these ores to fingerprint the evolution of the Earth, as the orebodies hosting critical metals show specific compositional and tectonic styles at discrete time periods of the Earth’s geological history, which may reflect the secular changes in the tectonic styles and magmatic or thermal conditions of the Earth.
My other research interest is focused on unravelling the processes of the early Earth, specifically in understanding what crust-building processes and tectonics were prevalent in the Archean (3.8-3.0 billion years ago!), and if the principal of uniformitarianism applies to this time period. I study the early Earth rocks from Archean greenstone belts, which are believed to be the primordial crust. I’m particularly passionate about the study of komatiites from these greenstone belts, not only for the economic-scale of nickel mineralization they host, but also because they only occur at a narrow time interval (3.5-2.8 Ga) due to the high thermal conditions that were prevalent on Earth at that time. Hence, they act as a window to the past and significantly help us to unravel the processes of the early Earth.
In the future I’m interested to work on sustainability and collaborate with key partners to explore the potential of extracting critical metals from mine wastes, tailings and laterites. I would also be interested to understand the distribution of such metals in the soils to investigate possible remediation techniques for the industry.

Publications

1. Rose R., Mukherjee, R., Frei, R., Mondal S.K., Lingadevaru, M. (2022). Petrogenesis of the Late Archean Pillow Basalts from the Chitradurga Greenstone Belt, Western Dharwar Craton (southern India). Journal of Earth System Sciences (2022) 131 95.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-022-01818-z

2. Datta, P., Mukherjee, R., Mondal S.K., Lingadevaru, M. (2021). Origin of sulfide-bearing late Archean komatiitic suite of rocks in the Shankaraghatta ultramafic-mafic belt, Western Dharwar Craton (India). Ore Geology Reviews 138 (2021) 104375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2021.104375

3. Latypov, R., Costin, G., Chistyakova, S., Hunt, E.J., Mukherjee, R., Naldrett, A.J. (2018). Platinum- bearing chromite layers are caused by pressure reduction during magma ascent. Nature Communications 9(462): 1-7.

4. Prichard, H.M., Mondal, S.K., Mukherjee, R., Fisher, P.C., Giles, N. (2018): Geochemistry and mineralogy of Pd in the magnetitite layer within the upper gabbro of the Mesoarchean Nuasahi Massif (Orissa, India). Mineralium Deposita 53, 547–564.

5. Mukherjee, R., Latypov, R., Balakrishna A. (2017). Sill-like emplacement of UG-1 chromitite into anorthosite of the Bushveld 1 Complex, South Africa: inferences from field observations. Ore Geology Reviews 90, 94-110.

6. Latypov, R., Chistyakova, S., Mukherjee, R. (2017). A Novel Hypothesis for the Origin of Massive Chromitites in the Bushveld Igneous Complex. Journal of Petrology 58, 1899-1940.

7. Mukherjee, R., Mondal S.K. (2017). Petrogenesis of the chromite deposits in Archean greenstone belts. In: Mondal, S.K. and Griffin W.L. (Eds.) Processes and ore deposits of ultramafic-mafic magmas through space and time. Elsevier pp. 159-188. ISSBN 9780128111598.

8. Mukherjee, R., Mondal, S.K., González-Jiménez, J.M., Griffin, W.L., Pearson, N.J., O’ Reilly, S.Y. (2015): Trace-element fingerprints of chromite, magnetite and sulfides from the 3.1 Ga ultramafic-mafic rocks of the Nuggihalli greenstone belt, Western Dharwar craton (India). Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 169:59. DOI: 10.1007/s00410-015-1148-1.

9. Mukherjee, R., Mondal, S.K., Zhong, H., Balaram, V., Ravindra Kumar, G.R. (2014): Platinum group element geochemistry of komatiite-derived 3.1Ga ultramafic-mafic rocks and chromitites from the Nuggihalli greenstone belt, Western Dharwar craton (India). Chemical Geology 386, 190-208.

10. Mukherjee, R., Mondal, S.K., Frei, R., Rosing, M.T., Waight, T., Zhong, H., Ravindra Kumar, G.R. (2012): The 3.1 Ga Nuggihalli chromite deposits, Western Dharwar craton (India): Geochemical and isotopic constraints on mantle sources, crustal evolution and implications for supercontinent formation and ore mineralization. Lithos 155, 392-409.

11. Mukherjee, R., Mondal, S.K., Rosing, M.T., Frei, R. (2010): Compositional variations in the Mesoarchean chromites of the Nuggihalli schist belt, Western Dharwar craton (India): potential parental melt and implications for tectonic setting. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 60, 865-885.

Memberships

Geochemical Society
Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits (SGA)