Bios
Bios
Bios
Murray Allan has been studying the metallogeny of the Yukon and Alaska
Cordillera as an MDRU Research Associate since 2010. Previously, he carried
out grassroots exploration with Anglo American in Brazil, Quebec, Utah, and
Alaska. His Ph.D. research at the University of Leeds focused on the
development of fluid inclusion analysis by laser ablation ICP-MS and application
of this technique to magmatic-hydrothermal gold deposits. He is currently
applying his experience with hydrothermal fluid chemistry to regional metallogenic problems in
the Northern Cordillera. Murray is a registered Professional Geoscientist with APEGBC.
Dr. Ravi Anand is a Chief Research Scientist at CSIRO and an Adjunct Professor
in regolith geoscience and geochemistry at Curtin University of Technology, Perth,
Western Australia. He joined CSIRO in 1987 as a Research Scientist in the
Division of Mineralogy, carrying out research into methods of exploring for
concealed mineral deposits in Australia’s deeply weathered terrains. He has over
30 years’ research experience in regolith geoscience and exploration geochemistry,
mainly in developing procedures for gold, base metals, and uranium exploration in deeply
weathered terrains. His current research in collaboration with the industry is focused on
understanding metal dispersion processes through transported cover. He led many industry-
funded research projects in Australia, and has undertaken consultancies and delivered regolith
courses and field workshops to industry, university extension, and government in Australia,
Canada, and several countries in South America and Africa. Ravi has authored/co-authored over
300 papers and edited monographs and reports. The outcomes of his research have been major
contributors to the discovery of many mineral deposits.
Shaun Barker graduated with his B.Sc.(Hons) degree in geology from the
University of Otago in 2004 and completed his Ph.D. in earth sciences at the
Australian National University in 2007. He then worked for five years in the
Mineral Deposit Research Unit at the University of British Columbia, primarily
on identifying vectors toward Carlin-type gold mineralization, as well as
developing new stable isotope techniques and applying them to mineral exploration. Since 2012,
Shaun has worked at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, where he teaches a variety of
earth science classes and is carrying out research on epithermal gold deposits and active
geothermal systems.
Colin Barnett was the Director of Exploration Technology for Newmont Mining
Corporation before forming his consulting company, BW Mining. He received a
B.A. and an M.A. in Natural Sciences from Cambridge, an M.Sc. in Geophysics
from Imperial College London, and a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the Colorado
School of Mines. During a nearly 30 year career with Newmont, he was
responsible for numerous innovations, including the first digital ground time-
domain electromagnetic system, which he took from the instrument design stage to the writing of
the software to process and invert the data. This led to the development under his leadership of
the first successful helicopter-borne, time-domain EM system known as NEWTEM.
BW Mining is a specialist group that provides a unique consulting service to the mineral
industry, using statistical data mining techniques to fully integrate multidisciplinary exploration
data sets.
Mark Bennett has been the Managing Director and CEO of Sirius Resources since its
inception in 2009. He is a geologist with extensive experience in gold and base
metals in Australia, West Africa, and Canada with WMC, LionOre, True North
Nickel, and Sirius. He is a two-time winner of Australia’s “ rospector of the Year”
award for his discoveries, which include the Thunderbox gold mine, the Waterloo
nickel mine, and the world-class Nova-Bollinger nickel-copper deposit in Western
Australia. Mark also has extensive experience in equity capital markets, transactions, and
corporate strategy, having led Sirius to become the best performing ASX stock of 2013. Mark
holds both bachelor- and doctorate-level degrees in economic geology and is a Fellow of the
Geological Society of London and the Australian Institute of Geoscientists, and a Member of the
Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and the Australian Institute of Company
Directors.
Thomas Bissig graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in
1997, where he carried out his diploma thesis research on the tectonic evolution of
the alpine suture zone in the Val Malenco, northern Italy. After working for Barrick
Chile, he initiated his h. . research at Queen’s University on the relationship of
the Miocene geomorphologic evolution and magmatism to the high sulfidation
epithermal deposits in the El Indio belt, Chile-Argentina border. He graduated in
2001. After a two-year postdoc at the Mineral Deposit Research Unit (MDRU), University of
British Columbia, Thomas assumed a position as Assistant Professor at Universidad Católica del
Norte in Antofagasta, Chile, in 2004, where he stayed until late 2008 before he took his current
position as senior Research Associate at MDRU. He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed
research papers, largely on Andean metallogeny and epithermal deposits, and was awarded the
Brian J. Skinner Award in 2003.
Wouter Bleeker obtained degrees in geology and ore petrology from the Free
University of Amsterdam, working on projects in Scandinavia. In collaboration
with industry, his M.Sc. degree involved unraveling the structure, stratigraphy, and
mineralogy of silver-bearing phases of an ore horizon in the Bergslagen district, central Sweden.
His work contributed to the discovery and production of the Lovisa massive sulfide deposit. He
then taught at the University of Botswana before coming to Canada. He obtained his Ph.D. from
the University of New Brunswick with a dissertation on the structure and stratigraphy of the
Thompson nickel belt and its nickel sulfide deposits. He has worked on the geology of the
Abitibi greenstone belt for more than two decades, first as a researcher with Falconbridge Ltd.
and later with the Geological Survey of Canada. With the GSC, and a through a number of
global collaborations, he has worked on numerous Precambrian terrains and cratons around the
world, notably the Slave craton.
Douglas Bryman holds the J.B. Warren Chair and is a Professor in the Department
of hysics and Astronomy at the University of British olumbia. r. Bryman’s
research focuses on the study of rare particle decays. He has been a spokesman for
experiments at TRIUMF and Brookhaven National Laboratory. He has also been
involved in advanced radiation detector instrumentation development for high
energy physics and applied physics, for which he has received several patents. In
2011, Bryman was co-recipient of the W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics
from the American Physical Society. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and
was a Fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. He is currently on the
editorial board of Physical Review (D) and has served as Divisional Associate Editor at Physical
Review Letters (2004-10). He has also served on numerous international advisory boards
including BNL, Fermilab, the Paul Sherrer Institut (Switzerland), NSERC, and the Nuclear
Science Advisory Committee (United States).
Michelle Burke graduated with a B.S. in geology in 2013 and is currently in her
second year as a graduate assistant pursuing an M.S. at Miami University in Ohio
under the direction of Dr. Mark Krekeler. Her thesis is an investigation of the
naturally occurring quartz-gold interface from gold deposits in Nevada at the atomic
scale. Broader research interests include mineral exploration, mineralogy of native
metals, and electron microscopy. Her undergraduate work includes an electron
microscopy investigation of native copper and associated native silver from the Keweenaw
Peninsula in northern Michigan. Her background also includes a number of other research
projects including analysis of spent battery cathode material for recycling battery waste, water
and sediment sampling in Kentucky, and mineral exploration in Kentucky. She hopes to continue
working on applied and fundamental problems in economic geology and broaden
instrumentation skills.
Massimo Chiaradia graduated from the University of Padova (Italy) and obtained
his Ph.D. at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). M. Chiaradia is currently
Senior Lecturer at the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Geneva
(Switzerland), where he is responsible for the radiogenic and heavy stable isotope
laboratory. His current research directions, including his own investigations and
supervision of M.Sc. and Ph.D. students, are (1) the petrogenesis of arc magmas
with implications for continental crust formation and (2) the relationship between magma
chemistry, dynamics of subduction zones, and the formation of porphyry-type deposits. His
current field work areas are in Ecuador and Peru, where he studies both active volcanic edifices
and fossil magmatic-hydrothermal systems.
Jim Coppard (CGeol, EurGeol) earned his MSc and DIC in mineral exploration
at the Royal School of Mines. He then started working at the BGS, followed by
nine great years at RTZ/Rio Tinto exploring for a wide range of commodities,
after which Jim created his own geological consultancy. In 1999 he joined
Minorco/Anglo American Exploration and was one of the key individuals in the
group’s “ ecade of iscovery” successes. Since leaving Anglo American in
2013, he works as an independent geological consultant focused on the Nordic region. Jim is the
discoverer of the Finnish Sakatti Cu-Ni-PGE deposit and the Swedish Rakkurijarvi IOCG
deposit. Awarded the 5th Fennoscandian Mining Award and the 5th Nordic Exploration Award,
Jim’s expertise and passion are in the Nordic region, on which he has focused for the last 25
years, generating exploration concepts, negotiating deals, and managing teams, all the way
through to significant discoveries.
David Huston joined Geoscience Australia in 1995 and currently works in the
Resources Division as part of the Mineral Systems Group. Since joining GA,
David has worked on metallogenesis of Australian mineral provinces ranging
from the Paleoarchean to the Phanerozoic and relating it to tectonic evolution. He
has a B.Sc. in geological engineering from Colorado School of Mines, an M.Sc. in
geosciences from the University of Arizona, and a Ph.D. in geology from the
University of Tasmania.
Mark Jessell is a Winthrop Professor and Western Australian Fellow at the Centre
for Exploration Targeting, University of Western Australia (CET UWA), having
recently arrived from France, where he was a Research Director with the Institute
de Recherche pour le Development, where he started the West African
Exploration Initiative (WAXI). His scientific interests revolve around
microstructure studies (the Elle platform), integration of geology and geophysics
in 2- and 3-D (the Noddy project), and the tectonics and metallogenesis of the West African
craton (WAXI). His current Fellowship is focused on improving the links between geological
and geophysical data analysis in 3-D via analysis of the geological and topological uncertainty.
Rolf Jonsson began working at Boliden in 1973 and retired in 2013. From 1973 to
1980, he worked in northern Sweden as a project geologist, conducting brownfields
exploration for low-grade, porphyry-style open-pittable Cu deposits. From 1980 to
1995, he mainly conducted exploration for deep-seated massive sulfides in the
Skellefte district, located in northern Sweden. He managed the project from 1988 to
1995. From 1995 to 2008, he worked in exploration for carbonate-hosted Zn, Pb,
Ag deposits in Garpenberg and Bergslagen, central Sweden, most of the time as a manager.
Together with several other retired geologists and geophysicists, he has been working on
compiling Boliden’s exploration history in three books for the last four years.
Tea Laurila is a Ph.D. student currently writing up her thesis at the German Ocean
Science Center (GEOMAR). She did her M.Sc. in Finland with a focus on ore
geology. At present, she is working on mineralization associated with the
stratiform metalliferous sediments (90 Mt) in the Red Sea, which offer a unique
opportunity to study modern mineralization in a brine pool. Her Ph.D. is part of a
larger CAMIRO project on black shales conducted at the University of Ottawa.
Freya Marks, who is originally from Scotland, received her B.Sc. degree in earth
science from the University of Glasgow in 2011. As an undergraduate she was part
of a geological mapping expedition to east Iceland and received an award for her
mapping dissertation of the Isle of Rum, Scotland. She spent an exchange year at the
University of Auckland, New Zealand. After doing work at two nickel laterite
projects with Anglo American in Brazil, she decided to pursue a career in economic
geology. She is currently in the final year of her Ph.D. at University College Dublin, where she is
researching the halo of the Navan Zn-Pb Irish-type deposit. Her research mostly involves using
petrography, geochemistry, and isotope geochemistry to further improve deposit models and to
facilitate future exploration. She is interested in all aspects of geology, especially geological
mapping, and loves an opportunity to go into the field.
Steven Micklethwaite has worked closely with the minerals exploration industry for
12 years, mapped on four continents in a variety of ore deposits, trained professional
geoscientists, and delivered new techniques and concepts for the exploration industry.
He works across all scales, from the tectonic processes controlling deposit formation
or shaping landscape and ocean basins to the macroscopic and microscopic
deformation mechanisms involved in the earthquake cycle and the formation of fault rocks.
Using a combination of field mapping, numerical modelling, and advanced technologies such as
unmanned aerial vehicles, his research focuses on the influence of deformation, stress changes,
and fracture mechanics on the flow of fluids and mineralization in the Earth’s crust. Some of his
earlier work into the application of stress transfer modeling as an exploration targeting tool has
now been integrated into commercial software. Steven obtained his Ph.D. from Leeds University,
UK, before working at the Australian National University and the Centre of Excellence in Ore
Deposits at University of Tasmania. He is presently based at the Centre for Exploration
Targeting, University of Western Australia, where he was the inaugural recipient of the
Hammond-Nisbet Fellowship, having previously won a Rising Stars Award from the University
of Tasmania.
John Muntean is an Associate Professor with the Nevada Bureau of Mines and
Geology at the University of Nevada Reno, where he serves as the Director for the
Center for Research in Economic Geology. He received his B.S. from Purdue
University, his M.S. from the University of Michigan, and his Ph.D. from Stanford
University. Before joining UNR in 2005, John worked 12 years for companies in
the mining industry, including Santa Fe Pacific, Homestake, and Placer Dome,
mainly exploring for gold in Nevada. His research focuses on Carlin-type, epithermal, and
porphyry gold deposits. He was recently named the first Arthur Brant Chair in Exploration
Geology at UNR.
Russell Myers grew up on the Viburnum trend in Missouri and developed a taste
for the mining business there. He studied geology and geophysics at the University
of Missouri-Rolla and worked in gold exploration in the southeastern United
States and Nicaragua before going to South Africa to get his Ph.D. from the
University of the Witwatersrand. He worked for Gold Fields as a geophysicist
during the pioneering days when seismic reflection was first being used to explore
the Witwatersrand Basin. From South Africa, Russell moved to James Cook University in
Queensland, Australia, where he worked at the Key Center in Economic Geology until the Siren
call of industry became too strong to resist. Since leaving academia, Russell has been involved in
target generation and exploration programs throughout the Americas. He is currently President of
Corvus Gold, which has recently discovered a new epithermal vein system in Nevada.
Randall Oliphant is the Executive Chairman of New Gold, and was elected as
Chairman of the World Gold Council in September 2013. Mr. Oliphant joined New
Gold after key roles with a number of gold mining companies. He has worked in the
industry in many capacities for almost 30 years, and he serves on the boards of a
number of public and private companies and not-for-profit organizations, including
the Advisory Board of Metalmark Capital LLC, and the boards of Western Zagros
Resources Ltd. and Franco-Nevada Corporation. From 1999 to 2003, he was the President and
Chief Executive Officer of Barrick Gold Corporation. From 2006 to 2009, he was Chairman of
Western Goldfields Inc. Mr. Oliphant is a Chartered Accountant.
Don Pridmore is currently CEO of HiSeis Pty Ltd. Previously, he was Managing
Director (and co-founder) of Intierra Ltd, Managing Director and CEO at World
Geoscience Corporation, and Geologist and Research Geophysicist at WMC
Resources.
Nicolas J. Saintilan (SEG 2011) has been a Ph.D. student at the University of
eneva (Switzerland) since ay 0 . He has a master’s degree in exploration
geology from Rhodes University in Grahamstown (South Africa) and another
master’s degree as a geology-engineer from the Institut National Polytechnique de
Lorraine in Nancy (France). He worked for a bit more than four years in mineral
exploration in Sweden, Norway, Namibia, and South Africa, including one year as
a junior geologist in brownfield exploration for volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposits in the
Skellefte district (northern Sweden) and three years planning and carrying out a greenfield
exploration program for Pb-Zn sandstone-hosted Laisvall-type deposits in the Scandinavian
Caledonides (northern Sweden) for Boliden AB. He proposed the present Ph.D. study to Boliden
AB and started this four-year Ph.D. partly financed by Boliden AB shortly after resigning.
Frank Santaguida is a principal geologist for First Quantum Minerals Ltd. and is
responsible for global Ni-Cu-PGE generative projects. Frank also works closely with
the FQML exploration groups in Fennoscandia and West Africa on several active
projects, including near-mine exploration at the Kevitsa Cu-Ni-PGE deposit in
northern Finland. Frank received his Ph.D. from Carleton University in Ottawa and M.Sc. from
the University of Waterloo in Ontario. He has enjoyed working in mining and exploration for
over 15 years in Canada, Australia, throughout Africa, and Fennoscandia. Frank is wearing his
favorite tie during his presentation for good luck.
Clint Scott is a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia.
His research has focused on the inorganic biogeochemistry of black shales with
emphases in the study of biogeochemical cycles through time, mineral deposits, and
energy deposits. He earned a Ph.D. in geology from the University of California-
Riverside in 2009.
Eric Seedorff was born in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and raised in a mining family.
Eric earned a B.S. degree in geology from the University of California, Davis, and
M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in the Ore Deposits and Exploration Program at Stanford
University. Eric currently is Director of the Lowell Program in Economic Geology,
University of Arizona. Immediately prior to becoming a faculty member, Eric was
an entrepreneur for two years. His earlier positions in industry included Vice
President Mineral Resources for BHP Copper, Chief Geologist of Magma Copper Company in
Tucson, Chief Mine Geologist for Magma on the Robinson project, and Exploration Geologist
for WestGold and Chevron Resources. His research interests include porphyry-related deposits,
extensional tectonics, and hydrothermal alteration-mineralization. Eric has a long-term interest in
sources of organizational effectiveness. Eric is an SEG Fellow and Past President of the
Geological Society of Nevada and the Arizona Geological Society.
Lize Stander is an exploration geologist working for Newgold at their eak gold
mine operation, in the obar basin, Australia. She was born in the place of stones,
afikeng, South Africa, and graduated from the University of the Free State in
005. She started her career exploring for a junior coal company, otjoli
Resources, in Johannesburg. She continued her coal-based profession in the
Waterberg coal fields for Exxaro Resources. She married a geologist, ark
Stander, in 00 and they continue speaking the phenomenal language. They moved to Australia
in 00 and love the golf course in obar. She can be contacted at lize.stander@newgold.com.
John P. Sykes (MSci (Hons) MSc ARSM MIMMM MAusIMM CSci FGS) is a
geologist and mineral economist. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate and Adjunct
Research Fellow at the Centre for Exploration Targeting, part of Curtin University
and the University of Western Australia. His h. . research is entitled “Finding
the copper mine of tomorrow: Exploration targeting for copper mines, not copper resources.”
John has a master’s in geophysical hazards from University ollege London and a master’s (with
honours) in geology from the Royal School of Mines (RSM), Imperial College London. After
graduating, John briefly explored for gold in the Brazilian Amazon, before working as a
consultant in copper mining for commodities consultancy, CRU Group, in London.
Subsequently, John set up his own consultancy, Greenfields Research, specializing in the long-
term mineral economics of exploration and mine projects. His work at CRU Group and
Greenfields Research eventually morphed into the Ph.D. research now underway at the Centre
for Exploration Targeting.
Dr. Brian Tattitch: My primary research interest lies in investigating the evolution
of arc magmas during their ascent and emplacement, specifically during the loss of
gases or volatiles. My current research is focused on understanding the efficient
extraction and precipitation of copper, gold, molybdenum, and other ore metals via
the exsolution of volatile gases during the ascent and emplacement of evolving arc
magmas. The formation of magmatic-hydrothermal ore deposits, such as porphyry
Cu-Au-Mo deposits, likely hinges on variation in key parameters, such as ƒO2, ƒS2, ∑ l of
exsolved volatiles and the complex interplay of multiple fluid phases from volatile exsolution to
mineral precipitation. I strive to use novel experiments to examine magmatic fluid chemistry and
metal behavior from extraction to mineralization and provide insight where the data from the
natural rock record is greatly limited.
Philipp Weis earned his M.Sc. degree in geology from the University of Freiburg,
Germany, in 2000. Subsequently, he was trained as a scientific writer and worked
for several leading German and international newspapers and journals, including
Science, Nature, and Die Welt. In 2003, he received a scholarship from the
International Max Planck Research School on Earth System Modelling in Hamburg,
Germany, and earned his Ph.D. degree in 2006 for his research on numerical
modeling of ocean tides and their impact on the Earth’s rotation. In 2007, he joined the Fluids
and Mineral Deposits Group at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, as a postdoctoral researcher. Since
2010, he works as a senior scientist at the Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zurich. His
research focuses on the geology and hydrology of magmatic-hydrothermal ore deposits and
geothermal resources, using numerical process models, geochemical analysis, and field
observations.
Jamie Wilkinson was born in the United Kingdom and educated at Cambridge
(B.A.) and Southampton (Ph.D.), followed by postdoctoral research at Imperial
College London. This was followed by a 20-year research and lecturing career
teaching field geology, geochemistry, and ore deposit geology. He was recently a
Visiting Research Professor at CODES, University of Tasmania, and is currently an
Honorary Research Associate there. In February 2014 Jamie joined the Department
of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London, as Research Leader in
Mineral Deposits, where he heads a research group and consults for the exploration industry.
Recent research is focused on the development of tools for mineral exploration using mineral
chemistry, the application of transition metal isotope geochemistry to ore deposit studies, and
investigations of metal transport and deposition from hydrothermal fluids. He is co-founder of
the London Centre for Ore Deposits and Exploration (LODE), based at the NHM.
Kuifeng Yang was born in 1979 in Liaoning Province, China. He received his
Ph.D. degree in mineralogy, petrology, and mineral deposit geology from the
Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS), in
2008. Since that time, he has conducted research at IGGCAS, where he is currently
an associate professor. His research interests have focused on the formation and
evolution mechanism of carbonatite in the continental rifts, genesis of Bayan Obo
REE ore, and structural control of the Jiaodong gold deposits in the North China craton.