Welcome to the homepage of the SPP 2238 - Dynamics of Ore Metals Enrichment.

This research program has been established through funding by the DFG for up to six years starting in 2020.

The over-riding goal of the DOME SPP is to find solutions to fundamental questions of element transport and mineralization in heterogeneous chemical systems that are complex, dynamic and highly transient. The topic of ore genesis has been studied for a long time from a combined field/laboratory perspective and also experimentally in simplified systems, but rarely have these techniques been integrated in a coordinated way with the third perspective from numerical process modeling. The originality and innovation potential of this SPP lies in the coordination of empirical field-related studies that define the geological/mineralogical framework of natural ore systems with experimental work and numerical models that provide a quantitative understanding of the processes involved. This coordinated approach is essential to achieve an understanding of natural ore systems sufficient to develop exploration models for deeply covered deposits. The program has two complementary theme areas: A) Ore-forming systems – natural boundary conditions, i.e. field-based studies on exemplary natural systems, B) Simulating the processes – constraints on metal mobilization and precipitation, i.e. laboratory simulations for determining thermodynamic and kinetic parameters needed for thermo-chemical-mechanical process modeling of ore systems. The SPP will integrate these two areas to explore links and feedbacks among key processes in ore systems and to derive integrated models of ore formation.

The second DOME phase started in the end of 2023 and brings together 26 reseach projects with 18 PhD and 8 Postdoc positions.  Over the entire DOME funding period, almost all possibilities of evaluating ore-forming processes are used, e.g. field work and geochemistry, experimental approaches as well as numerical modelling. The projects of the two funding periods are distributed among numerous German universities and research institutes in 17 German cities. There is great value in the methodological and disciplinary diversity of the research projects, as a broad exchange takes place in the jointly organised DOME workshops and meetings at which the young scientists are not only presenting their research, but are also encouraged to engage in interdisciplinary exchange and learn new methods. In particular, the workshops organised for all are intended to provide SPP members with an overview of ore forming systems and processes as well as common and newly developed methods. In addition, they also enable contact with leading scientists from Germany and abroad. The workshops, including excursions, introductions to modelling and experimental and analytical methods, as well as the meetings are also open to interested (young) scientists who are not directly funded by the DOME SPP.