Chromitites are one of the main threads running through my research. I study them as records of chromium enrichment, platinum-group element behaviour, and the interaction between primary magmatic processes and later overprint. My work spans both layered intrusions and Alaskan-Uralian or ophiolitic ultramafic systems, but the central question is the same: what combination of melt evolution, crystal accumulation, reaction, and post-magmatic modification is required to produce these unusually Cr-rich and commonly PGE-bearing rocks?
A major focus has been the information carried by mineral inclusions and metal alloys associated with chromite. In podiform and related chromitites, I have shown that large Pt-Fe and Os-Ir-Ru alloys may contain complex multiphase inclusions that do not fit a simple picture of direct crystallization from a primitive ultramafic melt. Instead, they point to multi-stage histories in which early magmatic assemblages were modified by fluid-assisted alteration, metamorphism, or reaction with evolving media. This shifts the emphasis from chromitites as purely magmatic precipitates to chromitites as reactive systems that may preserve both primary and secondary signals. I am interested in that overlap: where magma ends, where overprint begins, and how both contribute to the final mineralogical and metal budget of the rock.
