DoctorSheree Armistead

Dr. Sheree Armistead is an Australian Research Council DECRA fellow at CODES (Centre for Ore Deposit and Earth Sciences), where she investigates the interplay between plate tectonics and mineral systems, focusing on their cyclical and long-term changes throughout Earth’s history. Her expertise spans isotope geochemistry, data science, GIS, and plate reconstruction techniques to unravel the processes that shape mineral systems over geological timescales.

Sheree's DECRA fellowship is titled The interplay of tectonics and climate on critical minerals in deep time. This project seeks to address the urgent need for critical minerals by identifying tectonic and climatic conditions favorable for forming sediment-hosted copper and cobalt deposits over the last billion years. Using samples from the Central African Copperbelt—the world’s largest sediment-hosted Cu-Co district—alongside cutting-edge plate tectonic models, global sedimentary basin datasets, and geochemical tools, this research aims to provide innovative predictive frameworks for locating ore deposits in Australia and globally.

Sheree joined UTAS as a Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer in 2022, where she has led and contributed to several research projects, including a collaborative project with Geoscience Australia on the tectonic and metallogenic evolution of western Tasmania. Her work bridges the gap between fundamental geoscience research and its practical applications in mineral exploration.

Before joining UTAS, Sheree undertook a two-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa, funded through the Metal Earth program at Laurentian University. This project used a global database of Pb isotopes from ore deposits to understand early Earth geodynamics and plate tectonics, with implications for ore-forming regions, particularly the Superior Province in Canada.

Sheree completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide in 2019, focusing on the tectonic evolution of supercontinent Gondwana, with a specific emphasis on Madagascar. Her research used isotope geochemistry, structural geology, and geodata analytics to constrain the paleogeography of Madagascar and neighboring regions throughout several supercontinent cycles. This work contributed to refining global plate reconstructions spanning the past billion years.

Prior to her PhD, Sheree worked at Geoscience Australia as a Geochronologist and Mineral Systems Geologist after earning a BSc (Honours) from Monash University.

Qualifications
PhD Tectonic evolution of Madagascar over three billion years of Earth’s history University of Adelaide Australia 2019
BSc (1st class Hons) The structural evolution of the North Portia Cu-Au-Mo deposit, Curnamona Province, South Australia Monash University Australia 2013