Dr Lorenzo Milani

Lorenzo Milani is a geochemist and economic geologist currently based at the University of Pretoria. He completed his PhD at the University of Ferrara (Italy) and subsequently worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Hawaii (USA) and at the University of the Witwatersrand.

His research interests include the petrogenesis and geochronology of granitic complexes and associated mineralisation, the study of sulphide mineralisation associated with mafic/ultramafic intrusions, and the use of mineral phase geochemistry as vector to mineralisation. He recently worked on petrology, tectonics and mineral potential of the Damara Belt/Lufilian Arc orogenic system, on the sulphide-oxide mineralisation of the Phalaborwa Carbonatite Complex, on the Ni-Cu-(Co-PGE) mineral potential of the Kunene Anorthosite Complex, and on large-scale Ni-PGE metallogenic provinces across southern and central Africa.


Recent publications

  1. Milani L., Lehmann J., Bybee, G.M., Hayes, B., Owen-Smith, T.M., Delport, J., Oosthuizen, L., Ueckermann, H. (2022). Geochemical and geochronological constraints on the Mesoproterozoic Red Granite Suite, Kunene AMCG Complex of Angola and Namibia. Precambrian Research 379, 106821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2022.106821.
  2. Le Bras, L.Y., Milani, L., Bolhar, R., O’Sullivan, G. (2022). Applying U-Pb chronometry and trace element geochemistry of apatite to carbonatite-phoscorite complexes – as exemplified by the 2.06 Ga Phalaborwa Complex, South Africa. South African Journal of Geology vol. 125 (2), 179-190. doi:10.25131/sajg.125.0015.
  3. Bolhar, R. Whitehouse, M.J., Milani, L., Magalhães, N., Golding, S.D., Bybee, G., LeBras, L., Bekker, A. (2020). Atmospheric S and lithospheric Pb in sulphides from the 2.06 Ga Phalaborwa phoscorite-carbonatite Complex, South Africa, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 530, doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2019.115939.
  4. Milani L., Lehmann J., Naydenov K.V., Saalmann K., Nex P.A.M., Kinnaird J.A., Friedman I., Woolrych T., Selley D. (2019). Geology and mineralization of the Cu-rich Mumbwa district, a potential IOCG-type system at the eastern margin of the Pan-African Hook batholith, Zambia. Journal of African Earth Sciences 158, doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2019.103513.
  5. Milani, L., Bolhar, R. Frei, D., Harlov D., Samuel V.O. (2017). Light rare earth element systematics as a tool for investigating the petrogenesis of phoscorite-carbonatite associations, as exemplified by the Phalaborwa Complex, South Africa. Mineralium Deposita 52, 1105–1125.
  6. Milani L.,  Bolhar R., Cawthorn R.G., Frei D. (2017). In-situ LA-ICP-MS and EMP trace element characterization of Fe-Ti-oxides from the phoscorite-carbonatite association at Phalaborwa, South Africa. Mineralium Deposita, 52, 747-768.
  7. Kinnaird J.A., Nex P.A.M., Milani L. (2016). Tin in Africa. Episodes 39, 335-359.
  8. Lehmann J., Saalmann K., Naydenov K.V., Milani L., Belyanin G., Zwingmann H. Charlesworth E.G., Kinnaird J.A. (2016). Structural and geochronological constraints on the Pan‐African tectonic evolution of the northern Damara Belt, Namibia. Tectonics 35, 103–135.
  9. Naydenov K.V., Lehmann J., Saalmann K., Milani L., Poterai J., Kinnaird J.A., Kramers J.D. (2016). The geology of the Matala Dome: an important piece of the Pan‑African puzzle in Central Zambia. International Journal of Earth Sciences 105, 695–712.
  10. Milani L., Kinnaird J.A., Lehmann J., Naydenov K.V., Saalmann K., Frei D., Gerdes A. (2015). Role of crustal contribution in the early stage of the Damara Orogen, Namibia: new constraints from combined U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotopes from the Goas Magmatic Complex. Gondwana Research 28, 961-986.
  11. Lehmann J., Master S., Rankin W., Milani L., Kinnaird J.A., Naydenov K.V., Saalmann K., Kumar M. (2015). Regional aeromagnetic and stratigraphic correlations of the Kalahari Copperbelt in Namibia and Botswana. Ore Geology Reviews 71, 169-190.
  12. Milani L., Lehmann J., Naydenov K.V., Kinnaird J.A., Saalmann K., Daly S., Frei D., Lobo-Guerrero Sanz A. (2015). A-type magmatism in a syn-collisional setting: the case of the Pan-African Hook Batholith in Central Zambia. Lithos 216, 48-72.
  13. Naydenov K.V., Lehmann J., Saalmann K., Milani L., Kinnaird J.A., Charlesworth G., Frei D., Rankin W. (2014). New constraints on the Pan-African Orogeny in Central Zambia: A structural and geochronological study of the Hook Batholith and the Mwembeshi Zone. Tectonophysics 637, 80-105.