Biographies
Wayne Barnett
SRK Consulting
Wayne is with SRK Consulting and has 20 years of experience in the mining and exploration industry as a mining operations-based geotechnical engineer and applied structural geologist. He specializes in defining the structural geology of mining projects in order to properly characterize the rock mass for geotechnical engineering applications—for scoping to prefeasibility studies as well as problem solving in active mining operations. Wayne is a geologic modeling expert and undertakes and provides training in structural and geotechnical drill core logging, open pit and underground mapping, geologic data management, data quality assurance and control, and statistical analysis of structural data.
Isabel Barton
University of Arizona
Biography coming soon...
Mark Barton
University of Arizona
Biography coming soon...
Daria S. Bukhanova
Scientist of Lab of Petrology, Geochemistry and Mineralogy of Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Biography coming soon...
Ruth A. Carraher
C&M Consultants
racarraher@gmail.com | +1 (775) 828-1142
Ruth is a consulting geologist who has designed, executed, and managed multifaceted programs for assessing projects from acquisition and initial drilling programs to advanced programs in Nevada, Arizona, Mexico, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and China for companies such as Freeport, Coeur d'Alene Mines, Barrick, and Amselco. Her exploration experience covers Carlin-type gold; low-, intermediate-, and high-sulfidation gold-silver; syngenetic sedimentary mineralization; clay-hosted Lithium; and Mississippi Valley-type deposits. She is an active participant in professional organizations, such as SEG, Geological Society of Nevada, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME), and Women's Mining Coalition, and is involved with promoting the field of economic geology to both students of all ages and legislators to increase their knowledge of geology and the mining industry.
William X. Chávez, Jr.
New Mexico School of Mines
Professor of Geological Engineering
William has instructed field and in-class workshops for the Society of Economic Geologists involving a variety of ore deposit types, with emphasis on the practical application of geochemistry to mineral exploration.
Stephen Cox
Australian National University
stephen.cox@anu.edu.au | +61.2.6125.3418
Stephen is professor of structural geology at the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University. His research interests are primarily in the coupling between deformation processes and fluid flow in crustal regimes, with applications to ore genesis and earthquake mechanics. His research is pursued via field-based studies, microstructural, microchemical, and stable isotope analyses, high-pressure–high-temperature rock deformation experiments, and numerical modeling. He holds a B.Sc. (Hons) degree from the University of Tasmania, Australia, and a Ph.D. degree from Monash University, Australia. Stephen was the SEG Distinguished Lecturer in 2007.
Cari Deyell-Wurst
Corescan
Cari is a geoscientist specializing in spectroscopy applied to mineral exploration. She is currently a consultant with Corescan Australia and works out of Montreal, Canada. Cari has a Ph.D. degree from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and spent six years working as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Ore Deposit Research, University of Tasmania, Australia. Her research focused on alteration related to porphyry-epithermal systems in South America, Central and North America, and the Philippines, and she has recent experience with spectral applications in a range of deposit types.
John Dilles
Oregon State University
dillesj@geo.oregonstate.edu
John was born in San Jose, California, and earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in geology from Caltech, California, and a Ph.D. degree in geology from Stanford University, California (1984). He was an exploration geologist for Hunt, Ware, and Proffett, and operated small gold mines with his brother, Peter. He joined the faculty of the Oregon State University, Oregon, in 1986, where he is currently professor of geology in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. He advises graduate students and teaches courses in petrology-geochemistry, field geology, and mineral deposits. His research focuses on the geology of Cordilleran porphyry copper deposits, magmatic processes that generate metal and sulfur-bearing hydrothermal fluids, field-based structural geology, and isotopic tracers and geochronology. He is a fellow and Silver Medalist of the SEG, fellow of the Geological Society of America, and past chair of the Minerals and Energy Section of Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, where he has advocated for federal support of U.S. universities.
Rudy Ganske
Rio Tinto
Rudy has been a mine geologist at Bingham Canyon mine, Utah, for over 11 years. He has worked in a variety of roles, including core logging, pit mapping, and pit geologist. He has a master’s degree in geology from Idaho State University, Idaho. Rudy is currently a senior geologist with Rio Tinto Kennecott.
Peter Gleeson
Corporate Consultant (Mining and Resource Geology) SRK, Leapfrog
pgleeson@srk.co.uk
Peter is a corporate consultant in mining and resource geology with 30 years of international experience whose work concerns the practical application of mining geology to resource estimation and development. Peter specializes in resource estimation and due diligence. He is at the forefront of implementing new technologies for use in resource estimation and geologic modeling. Peter had over 18 years' experience in both mine production roles and exploration before providing consulting services for the past 12 years. In this time Peter has completed numerous JORC and NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimates as the CP for gold, uranium, base metal, and iron ore deposits. In addition he has carried out numerous due diligence reports for mining companies and the stock exchange along with independent geologist reports for many different commodities and companies. Peter's diverse experience across many commodities, exploration experience, mine experience, geostatistics, and structural geology combine to give him a rounded approach to resource estimation. This along with his integration of advanced implicit modeling technologies brings to SRK a unique combination of skills for resource evaluation at all levels from grassroots exploration to bankable feasibility studies. Peter has global, multicommodity experience working with both junior explorers and major multinational miners.
Kitty Gundy
Rio Tinto
kathleen.gundy@riotinto.com
Kitty is a graduate of Colorado State University (B.Sc.) and has worked over 25 years as a geologist in the in the mining industry. She started out as an exploration geologist in Nevada, California, Idaho, Montana, Washington, and Alaska. In time she found work as a mine geologist in an open pit gold mine (Rawhide) in Nevada, an underground Ag, Pb, Zn mine (Greens Creek) in Alaska, Bingham copper mine in Utah, and the Hugo North underground block cave mine in South Gobi, Mongolia. She currently works as a mine geologist at Rio Tinto's Bingham Canyon mine.
Murray Hitzman
U.S. Geological Survey
Murray currently works for the U.S. Geological Survey after a 20-year career with the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. He most recently served as the Charles F. Fogarty Professor of Economic Geology at the Colorado School of Mines. In this role, he built one of the largest academic economic geology teaching and research programs in the United States. He also served as head of the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering at Colorado School of Mines for five and a half years. Prior to this, he was an American Association for the Advancement of Science/Sloan Foundation Fellow in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Among many other honors, Murray was presented the Haddon Forrester King Medal by the Australian Academy of Science earlier this year; in 2015, he received the Daniel C. Jackling Award from the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, Inc. and the Des Pretorius Award from the Geological Society of South Africa.
Murray holds a two bachelor degrees—one in anthropology and the other in geology—from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. He received his master's in geology from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. degree in geology from Stanford University, California.
Peter Hollings
Biography coming soon...
Simon Jowitt
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
simon.jowitt@unlv.edu
Simon is an assistant professor in economic geology at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada. He was educated in the United Kingdom, acquiring a B.Sc. (Hons) degree at the University of Edinburgh, an M.Sc. at the Camborne School of Mines, and a Ph.D. degree at the University of Leicester. Prior to taking up his current position, he spent several years at Monash University in Australia working on various aspects of economic geology and igneous petrology, including the supply of critical metals. Simon’s current research focuses on the use of geochemistry to unravel geologic processes in a variety of settings, with direct application to mineralizing systems, igneous petrology, mineral exploration, global tectonics, and the links between magmatism and metallogeny. He has extensive expertise in mineral economics and the economic side of economic geology and has several recent publications on global Cu, Ni, Co, Pb-Zn, rare earth element, and indium resources. He was awarded the SEG Lindgren Award in 2014 and IoM3 Mann Redmayne Medals in 2013 and 2016.
Alan King
Geoscience North
king.alan77@gmail.com
Alan received a B.Sc. degree in geology from the University of Toronto, Canada, in 1976 and an M.Sc. degree in geophysics from Macquarie University, Australia, in 1989. From 1976 to 1990 he worked as a geophysicist in exploration and resource development in Canada and Australasia. From 1990 to 2012 he was employed by Inco/Vale as a senior geophysicist and then as manager of geophysics with responsibility for global exploration. As chief geophysicist for Vale Global Exploration, Alan worked on geophysical applications for base metals, iron, manganese, coal, and fertilizers (potash and phosphate), as well as target generation using regional and global data sets. Alan is currently working as a consultant with his own company, Geoscience North. His professional interests include the use of geophysics, new technology (and ideas), and data integration in exploration, mining, environmental, geotechnical, and other applications.
Kalin Kouzmanov
University of Geneva
kalin.kouzmanov@unige.ch
Kalin is a lecturer and senior research scientist at the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He received an M.Sc. degree in geology and geochemistry from Sofia University, California, and a Ph.D. degree in earth sciences from the University of Orléans, France. His research interests include the architecture of magmatic-hydrothermal systems, fluid processes in porphyry-related systems, hydrothermal geochemistry, and ore mineralogy, with key field areas located in South America and Eastern Europe.
Ken Krahulec
Utah Geological Survey
kenkrahulec@utah.gov
Ken is currently the metals geologist with the Utah Geological Survey (UGS). He has B.S. and M.S. degrees in geology and is a registered professional geologist. Ken worked as a mineral exploration geologist for Kennecott Exploration (Rio Tinto) and affiliated companies for over two decades, primarily in the U.S. and Mexico, prior to joining the Survey in 2005. He spent several of these years working for Kennecott Utah Copper on near-mine exploration around the giant Bingham porphyry Cu-Au-Mo deposit in Utah. This work resulted in the discovery of the subeconomic Stockton porphyry Cu-Au deposit. He has also performed reconnaissance around Rio Tinto's giant Resolution porphyry Cu-Mo deposit in Arizona.
Brigette Martini
Corescan
brigettemartini@yahoo.com
Brigette is currently chief geologist for Corescan, a hyperspectral core imaging company and service provider out of Perth, Australia. She received her B.S. degree in geology from the University of Arizona and her Ph.D. degree in earth science from the University of California-Santa Cruz with emphasis on the use of airborne hyperspectral imaging for resource assessment in volcanic systems. In the past 15 years, she has primarily worked in the resource sector, including geothermal, mining, and petroleum, and has worked as an academic and subject matter expert in hyperspectral and radar systems for the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy.
Erich U. Petersen
University of Utah, Latin American Studies Program
Professor of Geology and Geophysics
Erich's geographical regions of interest include Central and South America. He has worked closely with the Society of Economic Geologists over the years through several field trips, short courses, and workshops.
Jonathan G. Price
Nevada State Geologist Emeritus
jonathangprice@alumni.ls.berkeley.edu | +1 (775) 329-8011
Jon is a consulting geologist and the Nevada State Geologist Emeritus. He was the state geologist and director of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology (NBMG) from 1988 until his retirement from the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), in 2012. He earned a bachelor's degree in geology and German from Lehigh University in 1972 and master's (1975) and Ph.D. (1977) degrees in geology from the University of California, Berkeley. His geologic career has included experience with industry (Anaconda and U.S. Steel Corporation), teaching (Bucknell University, University of Texas at Austin, and UNR), research (Texas Bureau of Economic Geology and NBMG), and government. Most of his mineral deposit-related research has focused on ores associated with rhyolitic magmas, including beryllium, lithium, fluorite, and rare earths. Jon was the 2003 President of the Society of Economic Geologists.
David Rhys
Consulting Geologist
panterra@shaw.ca
David is a consulting geologist based in Vancouver, Canada. He has worked for more than 25 years in the mining industry, applying geologic studies with a structural focus to exploration, development, and mining. David has extensive experience in gold deposits, having worked globally on numerous gold districts of various types for a variety of clients, including both major and junior companies. His focus is on advanced projects and active mining operations, aiding in the interpretation of mine site ore controls, application of mine geology to local- and district-scale exploration activities, and training of geologic teams.
Julie Rowland
University of Auckland
j.rowland@auckland.ac.nz
Julie is an associate professor at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where she teaches structural geology and tectonics. She completed her doctoral studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand, and has worked for more than 15 years on structural controls on fluid flow with application to mineral and geothermal exploration. Julie has considerable experience in active extensional and volcanic provinces, from Africa to the Caribbean. Her focus is on the interplay between structural, hydrological, and magmatic processes and how such interactions impact mineralizing processes.
Eric Seedorff
University of Arizona
Biography coming soon...
James Siddorn
SRK Consulting
jsiddorn@srk.com
James, who is with SRK Consulting, is a recognized expert in the structural geologic analysis of mineral deposits, with over 20 years of experience. He develops applied practical solutions to understanding deposit-scale controls on ore plunge in precious and base metal deposits, the district-scale geologic interpretation of geophysical data for exploration targeting, and applied 3-D geologic modeling. His strength is in brownfields exploration and operational assistance, providing training and advancing the geologic understanding of impact on near-mine exploration, resources/reserves definition, and geotechnical engineering.
Ralph J. Stegen
Freeport-McMoRan
Ralph is currently a vice president for mine site exploration with Freeport-McMoRan, Inc. He is based in Tucson, Arizona, and is responsible for all exploration and resource block modeling functions at Freeport's operating and closed properties in North and South America.
Tommy Thompson
Economic Geology Consulting
Biography coming soon...
Jon P. Thorson
Consulting Geologist
jonpthorson@gmail.com
Jon received his Ph.D. degree in geology from University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1971 for a study of the petrology, petrogenesis, and volcanic stratigraphy of the Oatman gold district, Arizona. Formal education was followed by employment by Exxon Minerals in Tucson, Arizona, and Missoula, Montana, in metals exploration, and then by Exxon Company USA, Denver, Colorado, conducting oil and gas exploration in the Rocky Mountains. In 1990, Jon left Exxon to start his own geological consulting practice in Denver, specializing in exploration programs and staff training for major and junior natural resource companies. He has developed special expertise in basin analysis, sequence stratigraphy, and natural resources of sedimentary basins. Jon's consulting work has taken him to international assignments in Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Indonesia, China, Australia, Congo, and Namibia. He is a Certified Professional Geologist with the American Institute of Professional Geologists, a fellow (’91) of the Society of Economic Geologists, and a member of the Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits. He is currently involved in copper, gold, potash, and lithium exploration in the Paradox basin of southeast Utah and southwest Colorado, gold exploration in the Carbonate platform of eastern Nevada and western Utah, gold exploration in Mexico, uranium exploration in Argentina, and in the Paradox Basin Paleofluids Research Project with the University of Arizona.
Phillip Verplanck
U.S. Geological Survey
plv@usgs.gov
Phillip is a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Mineral Resources Program. His work focuses on ore-grade enrichment of rare earth elements in carbonatite and alkaline intrusive-related deposits and occurrences of critical elements in plutonic and volcanic systems. He has specialized in the geochemistry rare earth elements for over 30 years.
Douglas White
Newmont
Douglas is area geology manager for the Cripple Creek operation in Colorado for Newmont Mining, with 26 years of exploration and mine geology experience at Cripple Creek. He began work in the exploration department as a rig geologist for Nerco Minerals in 1991, then progressed to exploration project geologist. In 1998, he moved to production geology, with work including ore control, geotechnical, reserve development, resource estimation management, and reconciliation functions. In the fall of 2015, he assumed his current role, which includes management of near-mine exploration and drill services advisory for production geology. He holds a degree in comprehensive geology (1989) from Western State Colorado University.
Anthony Williams-Jones
McGill University
willyj@eps.mcgill.ca
Anthony (Willy) is a professor in economic geology and geochemistry at McGill University, Canada. He received his early education in South Africa, completing B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees at the University of Natal, and then emigrated to Canada, where he earned a Ph.D. at Queen's University. Prior to becoming a university professor, he worked for several years as an exploration geologist with INCO in southern Africa and Brazil. His research, which combines field-based and experimental approaches, focuses on the behavior of metals in crustal fluids and the genesis of hydrothermal ore deposits. He and his students (50 M.Sc. and Ph.D. candidates), postdoctoral fellows, and research associates, have made significant contributions to our understanding of the genesis of magmatic base and precious metal deposits and, more recently, deposits of the rare earth elements and related rare metals. The results of this research have appeared in over 150 refereed journal articles and book chapters and have been recognized with awards from the Geological Association of Canada (Derry and Logan medals), the Mineralogical Association of Canada (Peacock Medal), and the Royal Society of Canada (Bancroft and Miller medals). He is associate editor of Economic Geology, a fellow of SEG, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Ted Wilton
Westwater Resources, Inc.
twilton@radiumtrail.us | +1 (775) 424-4191
Ted is chief geologist for Westwater Resources, Inc. (WWR), a position he has held since early 2012. He is a graduate of New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, having majored in geology and minored in mining engineering. During his more than 40 years in the minerals industry he has been involved in exploration, predevelopment, and mine geology programs for a variety of mineral commodities, primarily gold and uranium. He has managed exploration programs in the western United States and Australia that were successful in the discovery of nine deposits hosting a combined total of more than 8 million ounces of gold, with seven of the nine deposits either currently in production or mined out. His experience is global in nature, having worked in the western U.S., Australia, Alaska, Yukon Territory, New Zealand, the southwestern Pacific region, Latin America, and Turkey. He has held a wide range of technical positions within the precious metals sector at Freeport Minerals Company, Independence Mining, Vista Gold, Kinross Gold, and Victoria Gold Corporation. His uranium experience, which spans a period of more than 20 years, includes employment with Cleveland Cliffs, Nuclear Dynamics, Rocky Mountain Energy, Freeport, and Neutron Energy/Westwater Resources. Ted has been active in the area of preserving access to the nation’s public lands for the mining industry, having served as the chairman of the Public Lands Committees of the Nevada Mining Association and Northwest Mining Association (now AMEA), a member of the Elko County (Nevada) Natural Resources Advisory Commission, the Nevada State Board on Multiple Use of the Public Lands, and the Bureau of Land Management’s Northwest Great Basin RAC. He has testified numerous times before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on mining law reform legislation and proposed public lands withdrawals. He is the 2011 recipient of the New Mexico Tech Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award and is an honorary life member of the American Exploration and Mining Association (formerly the Northwest Mining Association).
Peter Winterburn
University of British Columbia
pwinterburn@eos.ubc.ca
Peter is an exploration geochemist with over 25 years of experience in industry prior to joining the Mineral Deposit Research Unit (MDRU) as a professor of exploration geochemistry at the University of British Columbia, Canada, in 2014. Peter was previously employed by Anglo American plc as their regional geochemist in Africa and subsequently in South America, based out of Santiago, Chile, following which he held the post of chief geochemist for global exploration with Vale, based out of Toronto, Canada. Peter has worked in over 60 countries representing a range of environments from tropical to arctic to arid deserts in both mountainous and subdued terrains. He is currently the NSERC/AcmeLabs/Bureau Veritas Minerals Research Chair in Exploration Geochemistry at MDRU, where he directs a program aimed at answering many of the questions and providing practical applications with respect to the discovery of mineral deposits through transported overburden. Peter has active research projects and students in British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, Colombia, and Chile, where he is working on a dominant theme of understanding the processes of anomaly generation and anomaly retention in the surface soils. This research includes themes as diverse as regolith mapping, surface organic and inorganic geochemistry, soil mineralogy, extractive geochemistry, and microbial genomics.