Seems there is no shortage of exploration consultancy geo's trying to hitch their wagon to the Aileron Carbonatite star. I was rightly chastised for my rhetorical flourish at the end of insulting the Equivest geo making career ending geological interpretations. The connection between my attempt at humorous denigration was poorly thought out (not thought out at all actually) and the implication of gender offense instead of just personal offense was unintended and I aplogised.
What really shamed at me this weekend was that I felt it appropriate to attack someone i didn't know and wasn't involved in HC for no other reason than to make a scene and belittle them. It's something I stand against, aggressively defending oneself is quite different to attacking someone as I did. It was mean, nasty, uncalled for and should only have made readers uncomfortable. 2ic is a alter ego, a character I slip into that's formed over many years, developed in part by genetics and part environment as character does. I'm resolved 2ic becomes better. Not sure how or when, but it starts by diminishing others less and adding more where I can.
In that respect, I appreciate Neil Pendock's effort at adding to the exploration understanding in West Arunta but the relationship he espouses between hydrated pyrochlore and hydrogen to explain niobium enrichment seems more than stretch. The old 2ic might say complete bunkum. Not that hydrogen doesn;t leak from drill holes that provide pathway for gas release to the surface, satellite spectroscopy readings are real, but the explanation doesn;t seem plausible. Niobium is such a small percentage to the regolith to start with, the idea that hydrogen is developed proportional to pyrochlore content seems both statistically and chemically invalid.
The 'OH' in his Na-Ca pyrochlore mineral formula reflects a hydration site (substitutable with fluorine) in the general formula Pyrochlore (Na,Ca)2Nb2O6(OH,F). Then we have the pyrochlore formula Neil presented being primary, when we know that heavily oxidised supergene niobium has the Na and Ca stripped put and becomes more hydrated (more OH in the mineral) not less. "Regolith unmixes to prochlorite".. which is an aluminium silicate and there is no Al or Si in pyrochlore... it just doesn't seem to hold water, let alone hydrogen
So having no idea of this hydrogen from carbonatite niobium regolith unmixing he speaks of, I google it up and pronto.. a much simpler explanation pops up. Turns out hydrogen escapes form the process of iron-oxidation regardless of the what mineral that iron comes from, but no doubt proportional to the concentration of Fe being oxidised in the regolith escaping through drill holes (ie nothing to do with carbonatites specifically and pyrochlore certainly!). There is a hell of a lot more iron-rich minerals decomposing and releasing hydrogen than pyrochlore, that';s for sure
Proof once again that it's not just HC, you can't rely on anything that's posted on the internet. Bit of fact checking never goes astray, be it exploration geo claims, management claims, feasibility study claims etc... especially if your investment relies on it.
GLTAH
Google below for reference paper...
Natural Hydrogen System in Western Australia?
Reza Rezaee
WASM-MECE, Curtin University, Western Australia;
[email protected]
(20min delay)