The main exploration and research activities in Greenland in the 1990s fell into the following categories: gold (with palladium); magmatic nickel- copper-cobalt; iron-titanium-vanadium; diamonds; SEDEX- and carbonate-hosted zinc-lead; airborne geophysical projects; geochemistry; and Pb isotopes.
Gold was one of the success stories, starting in the late 1980s and lasting into the beginning of the 1990s with the discovery of gold, platinum and palladium in the Tertiary Skaergaard intrusion. It continued in South Greenland, where all the gold occurrences in the Ketilidian Mobile Belt were discovered in the 1990s. Prospecting for diamonds on the west coast of Greenland revealed occurrences of both micro- and macro-diamonds—in particular, in the areas of Maniltsoq and Kangerlussuaq.
The increased mineral exploration activity of the past decade has been encouraging. Several projects show promise, such as the Nalunaq gold deposit, the Citronen Fjord Zn-Pb deposit, the Skaergaarden Au-Pd discovery and the diamond showings. Combined with geological knowledge, the large amounts of data from the AEM and AEROMAG Greenland programmes and the drainage surveys will form the cornerstones of future exploration programmes and provide the key to new discoveries.
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