MDSG ECR Distinguished Lecturer Awardee 2026 – Dr Martin Li
We are delighted to announce that Dr Martin Li has been awarded this years’ MDSG Early Career Researcher Distinguished Lecturer Award.
Martin is a research fellow at Imperial College London. He researches the mineralisation style, genesis, and controlling factors for the formation of critical minerals (REE-Sc, Nb) ore formation in supergene environments, with the aim to build up a framework for sustainable resourcing. He obtained his PhD at the University of Hong Kong and afterwards became an assistant lecturer in the same university. Then he joined the University of Brighton as a post-doctoral research fellow to study the supergene REE enrichment in weathered carbonatite systems before moving to Imperial College London through an Imperial-funded fellowship. Martin has been involved in research programmes on critical minerals resources across various continents. Martin is working closely with academics and industry to promote knowledge exchange and to build upon a dynamic and inclusive national and international mineral deposits research community.
Martin will be funded to give a series of talks at institutions around the UK and Ireland throughout 2026. If you are interested in hosting Martin please get in touch by email to: mdsgUK@gmail.com.
Talk options:
Formation of giant heavy rare earth element deposits through weathering
Rare earth elements (REE) are critical to the modern society, specifically to the transition to a zero-carbon society and numerous high-tech applications. They are the key components to make permanent magnets for wind turbines and electric vehicles. Currently, the world’s majority of the rare earth production comes from carbonatite-related deposits, however, the more demanding but scarce heavy rare earth elements, including dysprosium and terbium that are essential to the manufacturing of wind turbines, are mainly sourced from the regolith-hosted deposits in South China. These deposits can also be easily processed, enabling a low-cost mining operation. In this talk, an overview on the characteristics of these critical deposits will be given, and with case studies of two giant, representative regolith-hosted deposits in South China, the ore-forming process from REE pre-enrichment in the bedrock, styles of REE liberation, mobilisation and re-distribution during weathering to the cause of REE mineralisation in the regolith will be illustrated. Favourable conditions for ore formation and preservation will be summarised through comparison to other examples around the world.
The diversity of supergene rare earth elements enrichment process in weathered carbonatite systems
Giant rare earth elements (REE) deposits often form with carbonatites. During weathering, the ore grade could be further enriched significantly. Indeed, some of the world’s largest REE deposits are hosted in weathered carbonatites, such as the Mt Weld deposit in Australia and the Tomtor deposit in Russia. Presumably, the supergene enrichment in weathered carbonatites could be caused by formation of secondary REE minerals and/or residual enrichment of primary REE minerals. However, the relationships between REE enrichment styles and variations in bedrock lithology, mineralogy and geochemistry are not comprehensively established. Weathered carbonatite systems are under-studied in terms of weathering processes, mineralisation processes and interelement fractionations. In this talk, exemplified by the world-class Sokli deposit in Finland, Tomtor deposit in Russia, and Dong Pao deposit in Vietnam, the influence of the bedrock mineralogy to the REE enrichment style will be discussed. Different trajectories of mineral dissolution and neoformation, and REE mobilisation and fractionation take place in these deposits, illustrating the diversity of mineralisation style in weathered carbonatite systems. Comprehensive characterisation of the weathering processes would be the key to understand the ore formation in these complex systems.