Prof Frances Wall
Head of Camborne School of Mines & Associate Professor in Applied Mineralogy
Telephone: 01326 371831
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
BSc Hons first class Geochemistry Queen Mary College, London 1984
PhD Mineral chemistry and petrogenesis of rare earth rich carbonatites, University of London, 2000
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
Fellow of the Mineralogical Society (F.Min.Soc.)
Fellow of the Geological Society (FGS)
Communication Officer, International Mineralogical Association
Member of Applied Mineralogy Group committee
Past General Secretary of the Mineralogical Society
PROFESSIONAL HISTORY
2007- Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter, Cornwall, UK
Associate Professor in Applied Mineralogy
2007- Natural History Museum, London, UK
Scientific Associate
1984-2007 Various posts including research and petrology programme leader in the Department of Mineralogy, Natural History Museum, London, UK
RESEARCH INTERESTS INCLUDE
- Formation of ore deposits, including rare earths, niobium, tantalum and phosphate deposits
- Issues of critical metals
- Carbonatites and alkaline rocks: fundamental controls on their petrogenesis, including mantle metasomatism, formation of graphite and diamond-bearing carbonatites and rapidly erupted extrusive carbonatites.
- Responsible mining including ethical sourcing of metals, public perception of mining and energy issues in mining.
ONGOING AND RECENT RESEARCH PROJECTS
ImpactMin FP7 project (Impact Monitoring of Mineral Resources Exploitation), leading WP3 on socio-economic aspects of mining, including public perception of mining and the carbon footprint of the mining industry - further information can be found on the ImpactMin website
Improved liberation and energy utilisation in materials breakage using high voltage pulses. PhD project being carried out by Klaas Peter van der Wielen
Diamond and graphite in carbonate magmas, INTAS project 05-1000008-7938, 2007-2009. (links to web-page)
Geometallurgy of iron ores. PhD project being carried out by Kelvin AndersonUsing carbonate volcanism to understand mantle processes. NERC OPEN CASE PhD award to Natural History Museum and Bristol University, Emma Humphreys, co-supervised by Professor C.J. Hawkesworth FRS and Professor D.K. Bailey.
Postmagmatic Mineralisation and Fluid Processes in Carbonatite systems. PhD project, Emma Dowman, joint with Kingston University, co-supervised by Professor A.H. Rankin, Professor Peter Treloar.
Mantle metasomatism under the Cape Verde Islands, PhD project, Liz Evans, joint with Birkbeck College, co-supervised by Professor Hilary Downes and Dr Simon Day.
The Geology, Mineralogy and Geochemical features of the primary HREE-enriched Carbonatite Complex at Lofdal, Namibia, PhD project, Vicky Niku Paavola. Co-supervisor Professor Hilary Downs, Birkbeck College, London.
KEY PUBLICATIONS (also see publications page)
Wall, F and Zaitsev, A.N. (2004) Phoscorites and Carbonatites from Mantle to Mine: the Key Example of the Kola Alkaline Province. Mineralogical Society Series, 10. Mineralogical Society, London, 503 pp.
Jones, A.P., Wall, F. & Williams, C.T. (1996) Rare Earth Minerals: Chemistry, origin and ore deposits Mineralogical Society Series 7, Chapman and Hall, London.
Humphreys, E.R., Bailey D.K., Hawkesworth C.J., Wall F., Najorka J. (2010) Aragonite in olivine xenocrysts from Calatrava, Spain - evidence for mantle carbonatite melts from greater than 100km depth. Geology.
Rosatelli, R., Wall, F., Stoppa, F, Brilli, M. (2010). Geochemical distinctions between igneous carbonate, calcite cements, and limestone xenoliths (Polino carbonatite, Italy): spatially resolved LAICPMS analyses. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology.
Moore K. R., Wall. F., Divaev, F.K., Savatenkov. V.M. (2009) Mingling of carbonatite and silicate magmas under turbulent flow conditions: Evidence from rock textures and mineral chemistry in sub-volcanic carbonatite dykes in Chagatai, Uzbekistan. Lithos 110, 65-82. doi:10.1016/j.lithos.2008.11.013
Wall, F. Niku-Paavola, V.N., Storey, C., Mueller, A. and Jeffries, T. (2008) Xenotime-(Y) from carbonatite dykes at Lofdal, Namibia: unusually low light to heavy REE ratio in carbonatite, and the first dating of xenotime overgrowths on zircon. Canadian Mineralogist, Special issue on Carbonatites in honour of John Gittins, 46, 1251-1267.
Rosatelli, G., Wall, F. and Stoppa, F (2007) Calcio-carbonatite melts and metasomatism in the mantle beneath Mt. Vulture (Southern Italy). Lithos, 99, 229-248.
Doroshkevich, A.G, Wall, F. and Ripp, G. (2007) Calcite-bearing dolomite carbonatite dykes from Veseloe, North Transbaikalia, Russia and possible Cr-rich mantle xenoliths. Mineralogy and Petrology, 90, 19-49. DOI 10.007/s00710-006-0165-1
Zaitsev, A.N., Wall, F., and Le Bas, M.J. (1998) REE-Sr-Ba minerals from the Khibina carbonatites, Kola peninsula, Russia: their mineralogy, paragenesis and evolution. Mineral. Mag. 62, 225-250.
Wall, F., Williams, C.T., Woolley, A.R. (1996) Pyrochlore from weathered carbonatite at Lueshe, Zaire, Mineralogical Magazine, 60, 731-750.
Wall, F., Le Bas, M.J., and Srivastava, R.K. (1993) Calcite and carbocernaite exsolution and cotectic textures in a Sr,REE-rich carbonatite dyke from Rajasthan, India. Mineralogical Magazine 57: 495-513.
Le Bas, M.J., J. Keller, Tao Kejie, F. Wall, C.T. Williams and Zhang Peishan (1992) Carbonatite dykes at Bayan Obo, Inner Mongolia, China. Mineralogy and Petrology 46 1-22.
