Economic Geology Research Group

Economic Geology Research Group

Members                                                                                                                                                                                                                             1. Dr. Ng Tham Fatt                                                                                                                                                                                                            2. Zakaria Endut         

Collaborators                                                                                                                                                                                                                • Dr U Khin Zaw  (CODES, University of Tasmania)                                                                                                                                                    • Prof Bernd Lehmann  (University of Clausthal, Germany)                                                                                                                                          • Prof Wan Fuad Hassan  (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) Mineral & Geoscience Department, Malaysia  

Research direction                                                                                                                                                                                                        The country is blessed with abundant mineral deposits, in particular, gold, tin, iron, clays, granites and marble. Some of these have been mined or quarried, others are being mined while a large number have yet to be discovered. A lot can be learned from those mineral deposits that have been mined and those presently being mined. The aim of the research group is to learn more of these mineral deposits in particular their mineralisation style, structural control, geochemistry and the ages of mineralisation. The research will also be centered on understanding the trends, extensions and correlation with mineralisation styles in neighbouring countries like Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, South China, Philippines and Indonesia. Locally the research will also be focused on exploration to locate new tin, gold, iron and other mineral deposits in the country, studying them in detail with the aid of the department’s EPMA, XRD, XRF and other equipment.

Research areas                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  • Study in detail the geology, geochemistry, structural control and mineralisation of known deposits like Rahman Hydraulic, Sungai       Lembing, Tekka, Pelepah Kanan for tin and Penjom, Raub, Selinsing, Cini, Mersing, Sokor and Cini for gold and Mengapur for                 copper and iron.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 • Detailed study of discards or amang from the tin industry which have important minerals that contain Sn, Fe, Mn, Ti, Ta, Nb, W,             REEs,Th, U and others.                                                                                                                                                                                                     • Geochemical exploration. Initial observations are to be made in the field during sample collection, followed by laboratory                       descriptions on the binocular, petrographic and ore microscopes before further study on the XRD, XRF and EPMA.                                 • Collection of appropriate samples to be sent to our collaborators for age dating, in particular the timing of some of our major tin           and gold mineralisation in the country and their correlation with those in neighbouring countries.