Host Maxwell Porter is joined by two experts to explore the geological and tectonic evolution of the iconic Laramide Porphyry Copper Province, focusing on its complex geodynamic history and the key exploration criteria that define this world-class copper belt. Our guests share complementary academic and industry perspectives, offering insights drawn from decades of research and field experience.

The Geological Framework and Exploration vectors in the Globe-Miami District

Our first guest is Dr. Robert Lee. Robert earned his PhD at Oregon State University studying the El Salvador porphyry copper deposit in Chile. He then joined Freeport-McMoRan as a greenfields exploration geologist working across North America, the Philippines, and Europe. In 2014, he moved to UBC’s MDRU, leading and contributing to research projects on tools to vector towards economic ore deposits, across the Western Tethyan Belt to the Andes and British Columbia. Since 2022, Robert has been a Principal Geoscientist with BHP’s Generative Porphyry Copper team. His expertise centers on porphyry copper formation, mineral chemistry, and innovative tools for exploration, including zircon as a vector to ore.

Tectonic controls on porphyry deposit formation in Arizona

Our second guest is Professor Thomas Lamont. Thomas is a structural geologist and petrologist whose work links tectonics, crustal evolution, and the formation of major ore systems. His research combines field mapping with advanced analytical tools, from EPMA and thermobarometry to isotopic and geochronological techniques. He completed his DPhil at the University of Oxford, investigating how the Cycladic Islands in Greece evolved from a compressional to an extensional tectonic regime. In a later postdoctoral role, he focused on the Laramide porphyry province of the southwestern United States, showing how flat-slab subduction drove water-fluxed melting and porphyry copper formation. Thomas now leads research into how subduction geometry shapes the thermal and mechanical state of the lithosphere and its mineral endowment in addition to other topics, as an assistant professor of Structural Geology and Tectonics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Many thanks to VRIFY for sponsoring Season 5 of Discovery to Recovery.

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Host Anne Thompson explores the diverse and innovative methods being employed in Australia to build and retain the technical workforce in the mining industry.  From attracting new talent, to supporting early career geoscientists, to training professionals from other industries - this episode might just change your perspective on what is possible.

First up, Brendan Howard, General Manager for Technical Capability at Rio Tinto and a founder of the MiEX (Minerals Industry Experience) Program, addresses the mining sector’s shrinking and less diverse talent pipeline. The success of MiEX, a collaborative industry-led program, highlights the value of early engagement with undergraduate students. The pilot in January 2025 drew over 500 applicants for 69 places with 90% of participants expressing intent to pursue mining careers.  New conversations are underway in North America to bring this exciting opportunity to more students.

Richard Lilly, the University of Adelaide presents NExUS (National Exploration Undercover School) based in South Australia, which provides hands-on experience and essential training to geoscience students, bridging the gap between academic knowledge and industry requirements. NExUS combines technical learning with professional networking, using the South Australian Drill Core Library and nearby field sites to expose students to geophysics, core logging, and exploration through cover. Lilly is now stepping down after 10 years as Director, with the hope that this successful model will continue and be expanded to other jurisdictions to better prepare geoscientists for evolving exploration challenges.

Lastly, Deng Ngang Deng, from Target Mining Resources, shares his inspiring journey from South Sudan to professional geoscientist in Western Australia.  Deng was involved in establishing the Pan Africa Resource Reporting Code (PARC) and an invited plenary speaker at SEG 2024 in Namibia. At home in Australia, he has developed an innovative approach to training and employing geoscientists and other technical mining workers.  Initiated during the pandemic, the company continues to expand and add to their portfolio of skills they train for, successfully filling a gap in mining recruitment.

Many thanks to Avo Media for production support.  

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The diamond industry has a rich and complex history, influenced by discoveries, geoscience and marketing.  Join host Halley Keevil as she explores the industry’s history from the onset of modern diamond mining in Kimberley, South Africa in the 1800s, to the advent of laboratory grown diamonds and new platforms for marketing.  Featured guest Eira Thomas is complemented by Natasha Oviatt and Reid Mackie, who all have deep knowledge and understanding of the diamond industry. 

Natasha Oviatt provides her perspective as a previous glacial geology specialist with De Beers Canada, discussing recent changes in the diamond mining industry, consumer preferences and marketing strategies through time, ESG issues, past and present economic downturns, and her opinions on lab-grown diamonds and the future of the natural diamond industry. 

Next, Reid Mackie, VP Diamond Marketing of Mountain Province Diamonds, discusses the diamond industry from a marketing perspective. He gives his opinions on the biggest trends in the history of the diamond industry and what he thinks are the biggest trends shaping its future. He also discusses market strategies for younger generations and how lab-grown diamonds are affecting the industry, as well as the shifts we are starting to see in the natural diamond mining industry.  

Lastly, renowned Canadian geologist Eira Thomas, widely known as the ‘Queen of Diamonds’, and previous CEO of Lucara Diamond, gives her opinions on the past, present, and future of the diamond industry. She discusses the reasons the industry is struggling at present and how lack of alignment in the supply chain drives volatility. She talks about the advent of lab-grown diamonds, the intrinsic value of natural diamonds, and the public perception of the industry. She also discusses how advances in technology, including her new rough diamond digital marketplace, Clara, are revolutionizing the diamond mining industry. 

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Dive deep into a mega-magmatic mineral system — the Bushveld Complex with host Maxwell Porter. Max is joined by Professor Wolfgang Maier and Dr. Erin Thompson who share their insights on the geological setting, economic significance, and evolving scientific understanding of this world-class mineral province.

Wolfgang Maier discusses the Bushveld Complex’s geological framework, its importance in today’s resource landscape, and the controversies surrounding models for its genesis — and how these models have shifted over time. Wolfgang Maier completed his PhD on the Bushveld at Rhodes University, South Africa in 1992. He taught igneous petrology and economic geology at the Universities of Port Elizabeth, Pretoria (South Africa), Chicoutimi (Canada), UWA (Perth, Australia) and Oulu (Finland). He is now Professor for Ore Geology at Cardiff University, UK. Wolf’s research deals with petrological and geochemical processes in mafic-ultramafic igneous systems that contribute to our understanding of continental magmatism, mantle evolution, plate tectonics and the formation of magmatic ore deposits including PGE, Ni-Cu, Cr, and V-Ti-Fe deposits. 

Erin Thompson shares what drew her to study the northern limb, why it holds both geological and economic importance, and how magmatic architecture and mineralisation controls shape exploration strategies. She explains the once-overlooked yet powerful tool of Niggli numbers, and how geochemistry and isotope studies inform exploration and the future of the Northern Limb. Dr Erin Thompson has recently completed her PhD at the University of Leicester, which focused on constraining the magmatic controls on Ni-Cu-PGE mineralisation in the world-class Platreef deposit, northern limb of the Bushveld Complex. Her research was funded by Anglo American as part of the Northern Limb in 4D (NL4D) research consortium, which included researchers from across the UK at the University of Leicester, Cardiff University and Camborne School of Mines. She is now applying her background in magmatic processes and geochemistry in her new role as an exploration geologist.

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Come explore geoscience innovation and collaboration in Australia with host Anne Thompson. We talk to researchers at three universities and one geologic survey - who are also all involved in the Society of Economic Geologists 2025 Conference in Brisbane, Queensland.

Joins us to learn more about advancing science and discovery in Australia!

SEG 2025

Rick Valenta, chair of SEG 2025 provides a broad view of the work of the SMI (Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland) and how his role there as Director has influenced the conference.  What makes minerals mineable includes all the other aspects that sometimes are neglected, including the impact of geoscience on society, and on individual communities. 

A recent highlight in Australia is the final release of the Queensland Deposit Atlas, a vast and comprehensive public data set.  The Atlas was commissioned and funded by the Queensland Geologic Survey and completed by SMI.  Vladimir Lisitsin provides an overview of the data and the many and varied mineral deposits found in Queensland. 

To get a flavour of what might be in the technical program I chatted with two keynote speakers.  Angela Escolme, CODES, University of Tasmania provided insights into her work with a large collaborative project aimed at understanding the overprinted, transition zones in porphyry systems.  Lastly, David Giles, University of South Australia delved into how a structural geologist got to be involved in creating the innovative coiled tubing drill rig and what it really means to be truly collaborative.  

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SEG 2025 is in Brisbane, Australia, September 26-29th.  This will be a dynamic conference with cutting edge science, new discoveries, technology and more.  Opportunities for networking and learning include several workshops and field trips before and after the event, relaxed social events and of course the conference itself.  See you there! 

Alternative business models in mineral exploration and mining can build value for communities, benefit resource companies and influence perceptions in our industry. This episode highlights two innovative companies who are changing the business of mining:  Nations Royalty and VRIFY. 

Nations Royalty, a TSXV-listed royalty company, is focused on creating royalty diversification for indigenous people. Kody Penner, VP of Corporate Development at Nations Royalty, joined host Halley Keevil to explain the background and the business model.  First, he tells his own story as an indigenous person growing up surrounded by British Columbia’s mining industry. The company,  Nations Royalty, is the first indigenous-owned mining royalty company, and their indigenous ownership and management make them unique. He elaborates on how they balance corporate goals with indigenous goals and values, how they are creating wealth for indigenous groups, and what is next for the company in the future. 

Next, Steve de Jong, CEO of VRIFY, talks about the company’s history and how they came to their current business model as an AI-focused mineral exploration and software service provider. Launching at PDAC in 2024 with just 4 clients, VRIFY now has 30 clients and gains 5-7 new clients per month. Steve discusses how their team of geoscientists and machine learning experts utilize every scrap of data from a company in order to build predictive models that deliver targets to their clients. He reviews the many ways in which VRIFY is unique in the industry, including the symbiotic relationship they have with clients, enabling them to use their proprietary software alongside the VRIFY team. He hints at some exciting current and future successes that the listener should stay tuned for. Steve believes we are about to enter into a period where AI will be ubiquitous in the mining industry, and VRIFY will be ahead of the game.   

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We are thrilled to bring you the top entries from the 2024 SEG Student Chapter Podcast Challenge as a special set of three episodes. This is the third and final bonus episode in this special series.  We'll hear two segments that consider ore deposit models and environment of formation for Au deposits, traveling from China to Japan.

Chapter 1:  From mineral system to exploration: a case in giant Zaozigou Au-Sb deposits

SEG STUDENT CHAPTER: China University of Geosciences, Beijing (CUG-B) 

Host:  Jiayi Wang

Guest:  Jingyuan Zhang

This podcast episode focuses on the understanding of mineral systems and their role in shaping exploration strategies, with the giant Zaozigou Au-Sb deposits as a case study. Detailed geological mapping, geochronology, fluid inclusion, and structure analysis have revealed the structural framework, precipitation mechanisms, and the separation of gold and antimony in the Zaozigou deposits. These theoretical insights lead to practical exploration advancements in predicting the gold-antimony orebody occurrence, avoiding ineffective engineering practices, and locating the distribution of native gold

Chapter 2:  Hot spring deposits - key finder for hidden ore deposits along the Peruvian Andes

SEG STUDENT CHAPTER:  SEG - NMSM (Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos)

Hosts:  Rosa Razuri Prado and Paula Martinez Segura

Producers: Alvaro Zapata Cornejo, Jean Crisólogo Zapata, Braian Vara Guzman

Guest:  Diana Pajuelo Aparicio, Professor at Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru 

Peru is a country well-known for its complex geology, with hot springs distributed along high altitudes surrounded by unconsolidated deposits overlapping exhumed ore deposits. This podcast episode is focused on understanding the presence of economically important metals trapped inside hot spring deposits, revealing a potential key finder for uncovering hidden ore deposits.

Diana Pajuelo, geologist with 11 years of experience in regional geology and geothermal energy, participated in various projects with the Geological Survey of Peru. Her expertise provides a perspective on two types of hot spring deposits, the capacity for hosting metals influenced by biotic or abiotic factors, and the overlap between ore deposits and hot springs along the Andes.

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We are thrilled to bring you the top entries from the 2024 SEG Student Chapter Podcast Challenge as a special set of three episodes.  This second episode in the mini-series pairs the 2024 Silver the intriguing stories and history shared by an esteemed geologist in Brazil, with a second segment that uncovered the history and mining potential of northern England. 

Chapter 1:  Title: The Evolution of Geology in Brazil with Reinhardt Fück

SEG STUDENT CHAPTER – University of Brasilia

Hosts:  Amanda Rompava and Gustavo D’Amore Heer

Producers:  Juliana Berbert and Mariana

Guest:  Professor Reinhardt Adolfo Fück

The theme of this episode tells the story behind the articles and mapping work of one of Brazil's greatest geological characters, with special emphasis on the magmatic arc of Goiás in the Brasília belt, where important deposits reside, as well as his significant work on crustal structure, the Tocantins Province, and Goiás Massif.

With a cautious eye and carrying the experience of working with geology since the 1960s, Professor Reinhardt shares with us the unwritten history behind published articles, his perspecitve on the evolution of knowledge in the field and also the importance of mapping for a geology career.

Chapter 2:  ‘The Critical Mineral Potential of the North of England’

SEG STUDENT CHAPTER NAME:  University of Leeds

Hosts, Lily Dickson and Brayden Pickard 

Guests:  Dr. James Shaw  (structural geologist) and Adam Eskdale (Rio Tinto)

provides an overview of mineral exploration and extraction in our region of the UK, the North of England (Figure 1) and its critical mineral potential.  In February 2024, our student chapter hosted a mini-conference on the subject of critical minerals (Figure 2) with talks from companies including British Lithium, the Critical Minerals Association (UK) and Green Lithium. We were inspired to carry out further research into the critical mineral potential of the region we live in, the North of England, which we present in this podcast. At present, the UK does not extract any of the 18 critical minerals on the 2021 list published by the British Geological Survey (BGS). This renders the UK completely reliant on international supply which is a big problem, and one that we must try to address through increased mineral exploration and mining in the near future. 

In order to provide a full picture of the critical mineral potential of our region, we explore the rich mining history of the North of England, dating back to the Bronze Age at sites such as Alderly Edge (Figure 3). We also investigate current critical mineral projects: Li exploration around the Weardale Granite and Potash mining near the town of Whitby. Finally, we speak to Dr James Shaw and Dr Adam Eskdale who have worked on fluorspar mineralisation in the South Pennine Orefield and cobalt mineralisation in the Lake District, respectively. They provide insights into these deposits and to potential barriers to their extraction in the future. 

A big thank you goes to Dr James Shaw and Adam Eskdale for sharing their expertise with our student chapter! 

We are thrilled to bring you the top entries from the 2024 SEG Student Chapter Podcast Challenge as a special set of three episodes.  This episode pairs the 2024 Bronze winner with another that explored some of the political and environmental challenges in developing mineral deposits.  

Chapter 1:  The deposit that brought down a government

SEG STUDENT CHAPTER NAME: The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State)

Co-hosts:  Rory Changleng, Alex Cerminaro 

Producer: Rory Changleng 

Chapter Notes 

What mineral deposit became such a politicised commodity that it brought down a government? In this episode, two Penn State students, Rory and Alex, discuss what got them into geology and inspired them as budding economic geologists to begin a new SEG Student Chapter at Penn State. Alex reminisces about how trying to discover gold in his grandmother's garden in Pennsylvania led to his working with an Alaska exploration company to date gold mineralisation using a novel geochemical technique. Rory tells the story of the Ilimaussaq intrusion in Southern Greenland, home of the Kvanefjeld deposit. It was visiting this deposit during undergraduate fieldwork that opened his mind to the turbulent and consequential world of economic geology. Exploiting Kvanefjeld proved so divisive that it drove the collapse of the Greenlandic government. But as the second largest rare earth element deposit on Earth, surely it’s just a matter of time until mining begins?

Chapter 2:  Should we Mine the Seafloor? 

SEG STUDENT CHAPTER NAME: SEG of Athens 

Host: Pavlos Zambras

Guests:  Evi Dimou and Revekka Avoukatou

Chapter Notes 

Exploring the depths of the ocean for valuable resources presents an alluring frontier in human endeavor: Deep Sea mining. This venture entails a journey into the unknown, facing both mysteries and challenges while uncovering the potential of extracting precious materials from the ocean floor. 

The vast expanse of the deep sea, encompassing more than 65% of Earth's surface, harbors immense reservoirs of base metals, precious metals, and critical elements like nickel, copper, cobalt, and manganese. These elements are indispensable for powering the transition towards clean green energy. Whether it's polymetallic nodules or seafloor massive sulfide found at hydrothermal vent fields, these resources offer the promise of driving technological progress and fostering economic development in the years ahead. 

However, the pursuit of these underwater treasures is not devoid of controversy. Deep sea mining raises profound concerns regarding its environmental impact, sustainability, and the ethical utilization of Earth's resources. It's crucial to acknowledge that these deep-sea environments host unique life forms not found elsewhere on the planet, including highly complex prokaryotic communities and microbes with exceptional tolerance to acidity and antibiotics. 

International regulations governing deep sea mining are still under development, adding to the uncertainty surrounding this practice. Many fear the potential ecological disruption it could bring to an area of our planet that remains largely unexplored. The question arises: Can we afford the environmental and ecological risks associated with deep sea mining? Or, put more simply, should we proceed with mining the seafloor? 

What is needed to build geoscience skills for mining and exploration in Africa?  This wide-ranging panel discussion highlights industry, academic and government perspectives on establishing enduring relationships with local communities, with a focus on building geoscience and technical capabilities.  The discussion explored the development of local technical staff for exploration and mining operations, the role of geological surveys in skill development and the impact of research carried out without local collaboration (‘parachute science’).  

Hosted by Anne Thompson, the panel included Kurt House, CEO KoBold Metals, Kombada Mhopjeni, National Program Officer for Natural Sciences (UNESCO Windhoek), Benjamin Mapani, Professor Namibia University of Science and Technology and Franck Twite, Chief Geologist, Kamoa Copper S.A.

The discussion was recorded live in front of the conference audience in the Windhoek, Namibia on the 27 September 2024.  We covered 

The panel started with introducing themselves and the challenges they face or approaches they take to capacity building (skills training) in their work.  The discussion including the following questions:

·      How do exploration and mining companies create real change with long lasting community benefit? What makes a difference to community and government relationships?  

·      What can research and geological survey scientists do to help build global geoscience capacity and support public education? 

·      What do you think is the most important area to focus on as we look to the future? 

·      What makes you optimistic for the future of collaboration and our ability to build geoscience capacity?

We covered a lot, insights on the use of data science, how to get high school students interested in geoscience and even how cultural differences can impact our communication with each other.  

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