GeOCHemISTea

For this episode we read: Archean Lode Gold Deposits in Ontario (Colvine et al., 1984) aka the Greenstone Bible.

We talk about Simon's transition from working from large mining companies to opening his own consultancy for all those considering this as part of their future.

Our tea... have you ever been late to your flight, anxious on the shores of Lake Victoria, Tanzania?

As for the heart of the show? We talk about the applications of geochemistry to greenstone gold exploration. This one is dedicated to the fans of the show in Dubreuilville (Canada) who wanted some extra insight on geochemistry in greenstones. I hope you enjoy this one!

This is our second episode on GeOCHemISTea where we have branched out from geochemistry into a sister geoscience - spectral geology. For this episode take a look at another of the spectral ecosystem's end-members: hyperspectral core imaging.

Join us as we talk about hyperspectral imaging, the data load, and some interesting applications to porphyry geoscience.

For this episode we read:

Herein we present a general microanalytical technique rant, at least three soap boxes (my favorite being "I want to also rant about bulk chemistry techniques and why if these techniques are “so routine” that we still have some labs that suck at understanding (or respecting) how to do basic chemistry well"), and the story of how a geologist with a graduate degree in geochemistry found themself crushing rocks at the USGS and living in both Omaha, Nebraska and ::shudder:: Newark, New Jersey.

If you are an aspiring analytical geochemist or generally have questions / concerns about analytical techniques... this episode is for you!

This is our first episode on GeOCHemISTea where we have branched out from geochemistry into a sister geoscience - spectral geology. For this episode we start from one of the spectral ecosystem's end-members: remote sensing, or satellites and airborne.

Join us as we talk about the newest developments in sensor tech and data processing, while still paying proper attention to the role of remote sensing in the mining value chain.

For this episode we read:

Hyperspectral Imaging for Mining: EnMAP Satellite Data versus SpecTIR Airborne Data (Wickert and Casement, 2024)

Want to hear some more of Rob's thoughts? But also just general silliness from before we started to record? Enjoy!

For this episode we read Rob's paper: Natural attenuation in the vadose zone: Nature's gift to mine closure (Bowell, 2023)

Along the way, we may even learn about the vadose zone and the potential to remediate sites naturally.

At GeOCHemISTea we love it when someone is so passionate about their geochemistry topic that they reach out and request(!!) to be on the show. An honor, Ben!

So what ground did we cover... manifest your own destiny (or was that the US in the 1800s?). Ben has been a geochemist, a geophysicist, and a data scientist; there's lots of nuggets in there for young geos who are looking for the how-to... so how did Ben become a geochemist?

Our topic of interest this month was to talk about methodology selection to solve geochemical, geometallurgical, and dare I say geophysical situations that arise during the course of exploration and mining programs... and dare I say... Ben has a lot of opinions, advice and ideas on the matter!

For this episode we read:

For this episode we read:

Join us as we talk about dimensionality reductions, transformations, and workflows pre- and post- her introduction to the realm of data science. And talk about a really neat paper that used random forest to predict sodium for an alteration study.

For this episode we read a chapter from Sam Cantor's thesis entitled: Exploration Tool: Tracking Cryptic Alteration Surrounding the Iscaycruz Zn (Pb-Cu-Ag) Skarn-CRD Deposit, Central Peru (Cantor, 2020)  

Have you implemented UV lamps into your exploration programs to help try and sort out complex mineralogy and vein paragenesis? Sam Cantor explains his side hustle at the Mineral Deposits Research Unit at the University of British Columbia, where he was able to start to build out workflows to tackle this in a complex skarn and carbonate replacement deposit in Peru.

If this has not yet peaked your interest, perhaps come for the tea where he talks about his role as a green junior geologist in Nicaragua using hyperspectral to overturn high sulfidation epithermal mineral identifications using the field geologist's tried and true method of tasting minerals :)

Honestly... I don't know which is more interesting... the content of the mesothermal gold chat or the tea.

Almost 17 years after the work was originally presented, we dive into Jeff's honors project - a study on gold mineralization at the Callie Deposit, Dead Bullock Soak, NT, Australia. The evolution of the research to present day is fascinating for all the fans who have asked for some orogenic gold love on the show!