14 - 15 October 2009
Sheraton Perth Hotel, Western Australia
Franco Pirajno
Project Leader
Geological Survey of Western Australia
| Dr Franco Pirajno is a Project Manager with the Geological Survey of Western Australia, currently leading a team of geoscientists engaged in the study of the geology and mineralisation of Palaeoproterozoic basins, in Western Australia. Prior to joining the GSWA in 1994, Franco Pirajno was Professor of Exploration Geology and Director of the MSc course in Economic Geology at Rhodes University, South Africa, after 19 years in exploration with the Anglo-American Corporation of South Africa. In his career, he has gained considerable experience in tectonics, volcanology, ore deposit geology and mineral exploration in Europe, Africa, South East Asia, New Zealand, the South West Pacific, China, Greenland and Australia. Franco has a Doctorate degree in Geological Sciences from the University of Naples and his professional interests are the study of hydrothermal systems, regional tectonics and metallogeny. More recently, Franco has become involved in the study of hydrothermal processes through time and space, and of meteorite impacts-induced hydrothermal systems. On Earth, sites of hydrothermal activity support, both at surface and in the subsurface, varied ecosystems based on a range of chemotrophic microorganisms, which in many cases, directly or indirectly, participate in processes of ore genesis. Some of these ecosystems could be similar to the earliest biological communities that existed on Earth about three and half billion years ago. It is possible that hydrothermal processes also operate on other planets and satellites in our solar systems, for example on Mars, where liquid water was present, or on Europa, where subsurface liquid water could exist. These extraterrestrial hydrothermal systems may have supported primitive life forms and formed mineral deposits. |
 |
 |