focus as a career on - association of applied geochemists · iges/iags in perth. the meeting was a...

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NUMBER 129 DECEMBER 2005

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David Kelley

AAG Presidential Address

FOCUSON

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This EXPLORE has several articles by geochemistsdescribing how they got into the profession and how theysee the different parts of the profession developing in thefuture. The main intention of this “Focus” is to offer somewritten insight into the real world of applied geochemistryfor young geoscientists and students.

The New Membership Committee under the leadership ofRobert Jackson has produced an excellent powerpointpresentation that members can use at any time to promotemembership in the AAG. There is a slide in thispresentation that relates well to many of the experiencesdescribed in this EXPLORE and is shown below as anintroduction to the following contributions

It was great to see many of you at theIGES/IAGS in Perth. The meeting was ahuge success thanks to the hard work ofPaul Morris, Nigel Radford, the LocalOrganizing Committee and conferenceorganizers Promaco. Pulling off asuccessful international symposium is no

easy task and the Association is fortunate to have suchdedicated members stepping up to ensure that our mostimportant technical forum continues to promote appliedgeochemistry to an international audience. We also hadthe pleasure of presenting Ian Nichol the HonoraryMembership in the AAG and the Gold Medal to GwendyHall. Bill Coker accepted the Honorary Membership

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Geochemistryas a Career

NUMBER 129 EXPLORE

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TTTTTABLE OF CONTENTSABLE OF CONTENTSABLE OF CONTENTSABLE OF CONTENTSABLE OF CONTENTSFocus On: Geochemistry as a Career ....................................... 1AAG President's Message .......................................................... 1AAG Distinguished Lecturer .................................................... 3Best Talks and Posters at the IGES 2005 at Perth ................ 11Obituary - Paul Kellogg Theobald .......................................... 12Automated Data Exchange Format (ADX) .......................... 13Awards Presented at the IGES/IAGS in Perth ...................... 14Readers' Forum ......................................................................... 16Calendar of Events .................................................................... 18New Technology: Chinese Technology Applied to the

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award on behalf of Ian and it was truly impressive to seeIan’s legacy when Bill asked all of Ian’s past students inthe audience to stand up. Gerry Govett’s thoughtfulcitation of Gwendy’s Gold Medal was an appropriatetribute to someone who has given so much to the scienceof applied geochemistry and to the Association. Ian andGwendy are both highly deserving of these awards. TheStudent Paper Prize was also deservingly given to NigelBrand. Well done Nigel. Ian Robertson has looked afterthis award for many years and is now handing over thereigns to David Cohen. I would like to thank Ian for hismany years of service to the Association in looking afterthis award.

We had a spirited Annual General Meeting at theIGES. I took the opportunity to read a letter from EionCameron regarding the financial status of the Associationand I expected silence afterwards. But instead, membersresponded with a plethora of ideas of how we can improveour situation. We agreed that the value that each of usreceives from being a member is worth more than theUS$70 we pay annually for membership, so we increaseddues to US$100. Student fees are still unbelievably low atUS$10. We also agreed to aggressively pursue newmembership, which is already paying off from the effortsof Robert Jackson, Brian Townley, Dr. Wang and others.From their efforts and new members from the IGES, wealready have 100 new members. Other ideas include re-establishing Corporate membership and marketing AAG-sponsored workshops on applied geochemistry.

Our next symposium, the 23rd IAGS, is just 18 monthsaway. Jorge Loredo and his organizers are working onthis meeting, which will be held in Oviedo, Spain, in Juneof 2007. More information on this meeting is comingsoon.

The theme of this issue of Explore is “Geochemistryas a Profession.” There are several excellent articles onthis subject from practicing geochemists. One

EXPLORE NUMBER 129 PAGE 3

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President's Message… continued from page 2 AAG Distinguished LecturerThe Distinguished Lecturer Series for2005-2006 is being given by Stew Hamilton.

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For further information please contact Stew Hamilton([email protected]). Organizationsinterested in putting on a lecture should contact RobertBowell ([email protected]) for further information

Tentative Lectures & Tours• Beijing China, January 2006. Institute of Geophysical

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Regina, Toronto, Waterloo), spring, 2006.• United States (Houston, Denver), spring, 2006.• Europe and/or Fennoscandinavia, spring or fall 2006.

commonality that I see in all geochemists is a true loveand passion for the profession. Applied geochemistry isnot just about the science, but rather how science can beapplied to serve society. Regardless of whether your focusis finding a mineral deposit or improving the environment,being successful requires applying the science to achieve auseful result. Another trait of applied geochemists is thatthey tend to be inquisitive, resourceful, open minded andteam players. Our trade can only be successful if we havethe support of our colleagues, which requires that we worktogether. Finally, practicing applied geochemistry is fun.You never know what the result will be, and the places yougo and people you meet along the way makes everyexperience unique and rewarding.

If you have not visited our website www.appliedgeochemists.org lately, please do so. Bob Eppinger andAndrew Ransom have made a number of improvements tothe site. We are no longer maintaining the oldwww.aeg.org address so please update your bookmark ifyou have not done so already.

Sincerely,David KelleyNewmont Mining CorporationMalozemoff Technical Facility10101 East Dry Creek RdEnglewood, ColoradoUSA [email protected]

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Focus on: Geochemistryas a Career … continued from page 1

Emily ChastainEnvironmental Geochemist

In what is probably a familiar story for a number ofgeochemists, I enrolled in university , at the ColoradoSchool of Mines -, with plans of becoming a chemicalengineer. After taking the Geology 101 requirement, Ipromptly switched majors and became a geologicalengineer. After taking the chemistry requirements, Ipromptly went to the bar and drank a lot of beer. Myinterest in chemistry was rekindled when I took part-timework as a research assistant examining the acid bufferingcapacity of soils downstream from a high sulphidationmine. The work was extremely interesting and provided afirst glimpse at applied geochemistry. It was also the firsthint that information from all of those university lecturesactually made sense and had a place in the real world.

The summer after graduation I was very lucky to workon a stream sediment and soil sampling program. Classicgeochemistry field work. I was getting paid to spend allday outside — hiking, sampling and applying skills learnedin field school.

My career in geochemistry was cemented when Iaccepted a master’s degree project at the University ofBritish Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. My project wasto examine the geochemistry of surface materials at a goldproject in South America. Not that I really knew whatthat meant.

That autumn I moved to Canada and promptly wentto Chile and Argentina for 2 months to complete the fieldwork for my thesis. Turns out that examining the surficialgeochemistry of a gold deposit starts with taking lots oflarge (20+ kg) samples. The study area was two streamdrainage basins in the high Andes that straddle the Chileand Argentina border. Most of the area was above 4,000m (13,000 feet). Getting to the Argentinean area meantan 8 hour truck ride and went over a pass more than 5,000m in elevation (16,000 feet). Because of the deposit styleand mineralogy, the streams draining the deposit werenaturally acidic with a pH often less than 3.

After finishing graduate school, I spent the next 4years working as an exploration geochemist for Barrickand BHP Billiton. In four years, I worked in northernSaskatchewan, Baffin Island, northern British Columbia

and Whitehouse in Canada, Nevada in the US, northernSweden and Chile. Additionally, I worked on data thatwas generated in Africa, Indonesia, Australia and Peru.Relative to most of my co-workers I had an easy travelschedule! Common to both companies was theinternational make-up of the office. I’ve met and spenttime with co-workers from Canada, US, Australia, SouthAfrica, UK, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Argentina andChile.

The work at the two mining companies was highlyvaried and always exciting. In my first job, I was amember of a team comprised of four geologists, ageophysicist and myself. We were the exploration teamfor base metals (copper, lead, zinc, etc.) in North Americaand Europe. I was responsible for helping the projectgeologists design and execute geochemical surveys andinterpret the results. At the second company, I began as acontract employee working on an in-house GIS basedresearch project. The project relied heavily on datamanagement and geostatistics to develop geochemicaldiscriminators for a specific style of gold deposit. One ofmy favorite applications of the GIS analysis for the projectused randomly generated subsets of the original data todetermine the minimum sampling density that stillidentified the deposit. After being hired by the company,I became more involved with the project geologists andon-going exploration projects completing interpretation ofgeochemical surveys. I also became more involved inquality assurance and control; accompanying my manageron inspections and audits of analytical labs and eventuallyconducting my own audit on an exploration drillingprogram.

It is worthwhile to note that none of the work as anexploration geochemist is done without input fromgeologists and geophysicists. Exploration geology,geochemistry and geophysics all generate a lot of data andit’s easy to become isolated during interpretation. Themaximum value of the data is achieved when the geology,geochemistry and geophysics are examined concurrently.A personal prejudice aside, the most effective explorationis the result of a scientifically integrated program.

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Robert G. JacksonConsulting Geochemist

3D Zonation Modeling and VectoringMethods to discover Blind DepositsSurvey Designs and Data Interpretation

Seeking new target possibilities through3D visualization

3 Leamont TerraceDartmouth, N.S., Canada B2Y [email protected] 902-463-6910

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After 4 years doing exploration geochemistry, Irecently switched professions and am now anenvironmental geochemist for the mining division of URS,a large consulting firm. The decision to change jobs hadlittle to do with the exploration work and more to do withthe lifestyle. I simply wanted to spend less time away fromhome and fewer hours in airports and airplanes. Whilegeology and geochemistry are the common threadsbetween the two industries the work is very different. Inconsulting, you have to learn to work with clients, limitedbudgets, limited sampling programs, limited data andoften other people’s data. Instead of generating amemorandum or email with a couple of figures, as is oftendone in exploration, all reports flow though a documentquality control process. The composition of the office hasless of an international component but encompasses amuch greater range of professions including biologists,chemical engineers, civil engineers, geographers, forestersand geologists.

I am currently involved with a project to completeclosure and remediation plans for a number of mines inManitoba and Saskatchewan. In the mining group, wewere responsible for reviewing the relevant guidelines andregulations and using them to develop a list of criteria that

the mine would have to meet to be consideredremediated. The client also required a detailed costestimate of the work required to meet the criteria. I’vehad to rely on the engineering skills that I was taught inmy undergraduate studies to adapt to these new jobdemands. Some of the other work has been examininghistoric mine water geochemistry data for an operatingBritish Columbia mine to predict the final water chemistryafter the mine closes. As an environmental geochemist,learning about acid rock drainage and how to remediatesites that have poor quality drainage is a large part of thework. Fortunately, with a background in explorationgeochemistry, it was an easy transition to make. The yearsspent working in exploration also mean that I can speak“mining” to clients and can easily socialize at mining andexploration industry events – both important marketingtools in consulting.

Geochemistry will always exist as a specific focus inthe exploration and environmental industries. It is toouseful and too interesting a profession to be neglected.Part of our responsibilityies as professionals is keeping ourwork relevant, effective and training others to properlyemploy geochemical tools. Being able to speakgeochemistry with engineers or geologists in a way thatmakes geochemistry accessible generates moreopportunities for the profession.

Mike GrimleyExploration Geochemist

Like so many other geologists I have met I initiallywent to university to study something else (engineering inmy case) and after studying a couple of geology courses Iwas hooked. I also really enjoyed chemistry which happensto fit quite nicely with geology so geochemistry was forme. The more I learnt about the geological profession as awhole the more I enamoured I became — a chance to seethe world at someone else’s expense and also to see placeswhich simply aren’t accessible to the general public.Virtually everyone in the exploration business is in it forthe lifestyle as much as for the job itself, and that certainlyis the case for me. I have thoroughly enjoyed working for alarge company that has provided the opportunity to travelthe globe and gain experience exploring in differentcountries and for a variety of commodities. I have alsobeen brought into contact with many people whom Iwould never have otherwise met, and as a result travellinghas significantly altered my view of the world.

I should note that my perspective of geochemistry as aprofession is from being an employee of the mineralexploration group of a major mining company. There arebig differences between how junior companies, explora-tion businesses, mining businesses, consultants and theeducation sector operate. One of the benefits of thegeological profession is that they are diverse in terms ofboth opportunities offered and demands or pressurescreated by the multitudes of possible jobs so almosteveryone is able to fit in somewhere.

Currently I am a geochemist with BHP Billiton’s

exploration group based in Vancouver. For the first sevenyears I was based in Australia working on a variety of basemetal programs, both in Australia and overseas, but

NUMBER 129 EXPLORE

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moved to Canada three and a half years ago. Since then Ihave been working exclusively on diamond exploration,predominately in the Canadian Arctic but also on projectsin Africa, some of which I have had the opportunity tovisit. My prime responsibility relates to geochemicalaspects of exploration for kimberlites — mostly interpre-tation of mineral chemistry data (both in-house andexternal), program management, project generation andmineral title acquisition, but also routine geochemicalsupport functions like interaction with laboratories,quality assurance and data management plus targetscreening and selection.

Possibly the most important function of my role is toensure that geochemical techniques are usedappropriately and applied so as to create a balanced,multi-disciplinary approach to exploration. A key elementof this is educating other explorers about new advances ingeochemistry, and then driving the application of thesetechniques into exploration programs. I have hadexposure to, and actively used, various forms of mineralchemistry such as lithogeochemistry, hydrogeochemistry,selective extraction and traditional analytical geochem-istry, isotope chemistry, soil gas geochemistry and othergeochemical exploration methods. Implementing theseinto exploration programs has been a real challenge attimes, however the successful use of a new or differenttechnique can be very rewarding.

One of the fundamental tasks of being a geochemist isdealing with raw data, manipulating it into a form whichcan be interpreted to provide a geochemical picture of aparticular area and then relate this to other datasets (eg,an airborne EM survey) to extract the maximum value.Ten years after first entering the exploration industry I amalways excited to receive new data, knowing that I am thefirst to review and potentially recognize a new significantopportunity. Eternal optimism is a must in exploration,and geochemists are no exception.

Fieldwork is a key component of geochemistry, andany geochemist will agree is critical in understanding thesurficial environment and being able to confidentlyinterpret geochemical data. Apart from visiting somefantastic places and seeing some truly amazing sight, italso presents an opportunity to interact with differentcultures, many of which I would have otherwise beenunaware.

While each individual has a particular bent(geologists, geochemists and geophysicists), everyone isexpected to contribute to and be responsible for allaspects of exploration from generating and managingprojects, acquiring mineral title and budgeting tointeraction with joint venture partners and negotiationswith governments. Although much of my time is spent onmatters geochemical and it is this part of a particularproject for which I am ultimately responsible, teammembers do not work in isolation and everyonecontributes when required. Learning how to operate in ateam environment is key in any successful explorationprogram. I devote a great amount of time to trainingpeople unfamiliar with certain aspects of geochemicalexploration but also to disseminating new knowledge tothe group as whole.

Modern exploration geochemistry often generatesvast amounts of data, which produces a challenge duringvisualization and interpretation. It is easy to fall into thehole of spending a great deal of time, money and effortgenerating data, but ultimately extract minimal value bynot devoting sufficient time to interpretation. Asgeochemical techniques become more complex and agreater amount of data becomes available to manipulate it



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continued on page 8


is important that we extract maximum value from thisinformation.

It is important for applied geochemists of alldisciplines to become more involved and gain greater

influence at higher levels of their respective businesses.Although geochemistry will always remain a core skill it isvery important for geochemists to constantly acquire newskills outside of their traditional bounds of technicalknowledge, thus allowing us to direct changes within ourmany varied working environments.

Mike WhitbreadGeochemical Consultant

It is difficult to pin down what turns a ‘geoscientist’into a full-blooded ‘geochemist’, or when one can safelyassume that esteemed/derided title when dealing withwork colleagues.

Many geochemists I know started life as geologists.The geological clincher for me was being shown mineralspecimens in my first year. I was amazed that anythingthat forms a rock could look quite as amazing as micas do.So on into a geology major I went. Geochemistry didn’treally appeal to me at the time, as ‘spreadsheets andgraphs’ appeared far less glamorous and ‘manly’ thanstrutting around the outback armed with a trusty hammerand sporting a robust beard. What probably exacerbatedthis notion was that I was also majoring in chemistry, andanalytical chemistry seemed fairly dry in comparison.Organic chemistry was a hideous form of torture, andwhile inorganic chemistry practicals were interesting, withpretty coloured solutions, the practical applicationsseemed abstract.

A few years into the exploration game, I started tofind that ‘geology’ alone was not able to answer myquestions about why elements were or were not beingconcentrated in certain areas. Or why this lump of greenaltered rock was associated with a barren system andanother identical-looking lump of green altered rock wasmetres from mineralisation. Geology helps you build theframework for targeting ore systems but, in my opinion,geochemistry fills in critical pieces of the puzzle.

So the geochemical clincher for me was being able tostart to understand why ore-bodies are found where theyare. I could begin to understand and look for the presenceand extent of alteration effects, many of which can’t beseen with naked eye. I could also see how minerals andchemistry are fundamentally linked. A happy consequenceof these aspects, is that I could see why geochemistry is a

very practical and rigorous tool in searching formineralisation. After all, ore-bodies are just atypicalconcentrations of one or more elements.

So the transition from geologist to geochemistinvolved a PhD and a few years of consulting. I now findmyself being called a geochemist and finally feelcomfortable with the term. The consulting role I occupy atioGlobal is varied, challenging, frustrating and rewardingall at once. I have very rarely woken up and thought “ohgod, I have to go to work today”… which happened all toofrequently during my brief stint with production geology along time ago. I get to be involved in a variety of projectsand commodities and interact with all sorts of people aswell as deal with a massive array of concepts. I also know Iam adding value to the exploration process by helpingteams carry out appropriate geochemistry for thequestions they are trying to answer. ‘Fit-for-purpose’geochemistry is an appropriate buzz phrase.

NUMBER 129 EXPLORE

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Much of the day to day work involves data cleaning,manipulation and incorporation into sensible formats thatwill be utilised by others e.g. GIS, graphs, tables,powerpoints. Some time is spent looking at new methodsof projecting multivariate information into 2 or 3dimensions or trying to work out how to apply methods tonew or unusual situations. Software evaluation is anotherimportant task, as good software is absolutely critical tomodern geochemical practise, primarily because we areexpected to turnover large volumes of data in relativelyshort time intervals. Perhaps the most challenging part ishelping geologists and managers understand that you canonly get so far by looking at commodity elements alonee.g. Cu, Pb, Zn and Au, particularly in well explored areas.However, there is nothing better than being able to handover a bunch of rigorously defined targets, that wereidentified using careful examination of the dataset andunderlying controls on geochemical variability. People arecommonly surprised by what they have missed, even indirty old data, or how much of an area was really untesteddue to poor sampling and/or analytical methods. Ifcompanies collected more modern high quality data, theywould be astounded at what they could see. That’s aconstant barrow we geochemists need to push to theindustry.

However, geochemistry isn’t all flowers, fluffy bunniesand warm and fuzzy light. Geochemists are almost always

in a service capacity, which means they must convince,educate and cajole those around them into implementingexploration geochemistry in a sensible fashion.Geochemists are almost always striving to strike a balancebetween competing factors and personalities e.g.expenditure versus sufficient scientific rigour. This can beentertaining and also frustrating, but it is an unavoidablepart of the job.

So far, I have no regrets about my occupation. It isrewarding to be able to help geologists out, to improvetheir prospects of finding another ore-body. I get exposedto new concepts almost daily, and it is a good challenge towork out how to implement practical solutions to a varietyof problems. I would encourage anyone looking to panderto their geochemical bent to be sure to polish up on theirmaths (especially matrix algebra) and their mineralogy. Iwould also encourage geologists to utilise geochemistrymore – especially as many are good mineralogists andshould find the intellectual leaps not too difficult.

ReminderJust a reminder to all Members and Fellows that the

GEEA is available electronically atwww.ingentaconnect.com. Issue 4 of volume 5 for

November 2005 is available and is a thematic issue onGeochemical Mapping. By signing up on the website it is

possible to download the individual papers andalso access by RSS.



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Robert G. Eppinger, U.S. Geological SurveyA Serendipitous Journey into AppliedGeochemistry with the U.S. Geological Survey

Whitewater river running initially piqued my interestin geology and for me the two are intimately related. Istarted university study in the early 1970s at the Universityof Colorado in engineering and quickly realized that Iwould never become an engineer. At the same time, Ibegan a summertime job guiding whitewater float tripsdown the Green, Colorado, and Yampa Rivers in Utahand Colorado. Dinosaur National Monument hasfascinating geologic exposures of sedimentary rocks andstructure, and I wanted to learn about them—in partbecause my passengers were asking me about them. Ipicked up a book on the geology of the monument, but Icould not understand the language of geology. So Iswitched my university study to geology, while guiding insummers on the above rivers as well as the Salmon andMiddle Fork of the Salmon Rivers in Idaho, which cutthrough the Idaho batholith, Challis Volcanics, andProterozoic Belt rocks. I also took time off from school togo to Mexico a couple of times. Again, there was alanguage problem, so I began taking Spanish as a minor,eventually attending the University of Veracruz in Mexicofor a short while. In retrospect, this was a fortuitous andimportant decision!

After graduating with a B.A. in geology and aftermany thousands of river miles, I took a 3-month jobcollecting stream sediment samples in Arizona for theU.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Little did I know thatthis would lead to a career with the USGS. Despiteworking for Maggie Hinkle, an early AEG member whodid some of the first research on soil gas collection andanalysis, I was hired to collect and process streamsediment. During lunch breaks at the USGS Branch ofExploration Research facility, I would practice my Spanishwith Rudy Gonzalez, a janitor of Mexican heritage.Fortuitously, this was overheard by Paul Theobald, afounding member and former President of AEG. All thatI knew about Paul was that he was a highly regardedgeologist of world-class stature and that he had variouson-going projects in the U.S. and around the globe. Paulwas looking for a young, impressionable “junior geologist”that he could train and mold to become a part of his staff,and I was given the edge because of my Spanish (Paul hada project in Sonora, Mexico)—not because of my infantileunderstanding of geology and geochemistry! This is how Ibegan my career in geology and geochemistry with theUSGS. Paul also encouraged me to join AEG, my firstprofessional organization, in the early 1980s.

I worked with Paul for about four years, learning bydoing, covering various aspects of geology, explorationgeochemistry, geologic mapping, and the study of mineraldeposit, in northern Mexico, southern Arizona, centralIdaho, and the high Colorado Rockies. I was commonlyin the field for seven months of the year, and absorbed

information on geologic and geochemical theory andtechnique like a sponge. Mentoring by Paul in his forte ofstream sediment heavy-mineral concentrate geochemistryand mineralogy was particularly useful to me. Paul alsotaught me the importance of integrating chemists andanalysts in all phases of project work, including fieldwork.I did a lot of computer-based mapping and database workfor Paul; these are ever-evolving tools that are essentialfor applied geochemists. Heavy mineral work with Paulhelped me formulate a thesis topic for graduate work,using trace and rare-earth element geochemistry offluorite as a sampling medium for exploration. This led toan M.S. degree, supervised by Graham Closs, a professorat the Colorado School of Mines and former President ofAEG.

Moving from under Paul’s wing, I worked through the1980s and early 1990s as a USGS project geochemistdoing exploration and landscape geochemistry for mineralresource assessment studies of Federal and NativeAmerican lands in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, NewMexico, Oregon, and Alaska. On occasion, the bestaccess for geochemical sampling and mapping was bywhitewater raft! Geochemical techniques employedvaried with the different geologic and physiographicsettings of the areas, from alluvium-covered Basin-and-Range terrain in the southwest to high-energy physicalweathering and glaciated alpine environments. I was ableto draw upon the broad intellectual resources available inthe USGS Branch of Geochemistry to design geochemicalprograms and bring in specialists appropriate for thevarious environments. Eventually, the U.S.-honed skillsled to international work with colleague Maurice Chaffee,another former President of AEG, on a concealedporphyry W-Mo deposit in southern Poland. Long-standing friendships with geologists/geochemists in thePolish Geological Institute resulted from this multi-yearproject. Additional geologic fieldtrips to Spain, Portugal,Mexico, the former Yugoslavia, Greece, Scotland, SouthAfrica, and Australia have broadened my understandingof geology, geochemistry, and national geologicinstitutions worldwide.

In the mid-1990s, following the desires of the publicand U.S. Congress, the USGS began to take on a greaterrole in understanding the environmental aspects ofmineral deposits, which evolved into ore deposit life-cyclestudies. My work in environmental geochemistry began as

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Focus on: Geochemistryas a Career …

NUMBER 129 EXPLORE

an outgrowth of a national-scale mineral resourceassessment, in which I combined and assessed existingstream sediment geochemical data for some 25 1:250,000-scale quadrangles in northern Alaska. One surprisingnugget of information that emerged from this study was alarge, previously unrecognized, As anomaly in theKoyukuk National Wildlife Refuge in northwesternAlaska. My derivative paper on the topic brought theexceedingly high As concentrations in sediment to theattention of the refuge managers. However, I still havenot had the opportunity of visiting the remote refuge inperson to see and sample the As anomaly firsthand.

This study led to an environmental geochemicalinvestigation of historic mining areas in Wrangell-St. EliasNational Park and Preserve (WRST) in Alaska in the midto late 1990s. National park lands in Alaska wereexpanded dramatically in 1980, resulting in some parks,such as WRST, having a rich legacy of abandoned mines.The study was very fruitful, owing in large part to ParkGeologist Danny Rosenkrans’ keen interest in the studyand logistical support; and in recently-retired USGSchemist Paul Briggs’ superb field and analytical expertise.We investigated and published on modern-dayenvironmental effects on the geochemical landscape frommining activities at the stratabound Kennecott Cu,Nabesna Cu-Au skarn (Figure 1), Bremner polymetallicAu vein, and Gold Hill placer Au deposits within WRST.Expanding the study—literally and conceptually—weinvestigated the unmined, but well-exposed Orange Hilland Bond Creek Cu-Mo porphyry deposits, which areincised by low-pH, metalliferous streams. This work led toa similar study of an abandoned epithermal Sb veindeposit in Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve.

On a different avenue, results from a 1996 mineralresource-related stream-sediment and hydrogeochemicalstudy in central Idaho (which involved whitewater riverrunning!) became pre-burn baseline data when some 70%

of the sampled area was consumed by wildfire in 2000.Funded in part by the U.S. Forest Service, the entire areawas re-sampled nine months following the wildfires(another whitewater river trip!) to evaluate the effects ofwildfire on the drainages. While geochemical differenceswere found to be minimal, there nevertheless werestatistically valid differences for certain elements thatlikely relate to unwinnowed, post-wildfire, debris flowmaterial entrained in the stream sediment.

My current work involves a fascinating environmentalgeochemical study of a series of unmined Zn-Pbvolcanogenic massive sulfide deposits in the Bonnifielddistrict of the Alaska Range (Figure 2), a landscapegeochemistry study of the central Colorado mountains

Figure 1. Eppinger collecting water pH from stream belowthe Nabesna mill tailings pile during spring breakup in April,1997. Water temperature 0° C, pH 2.8, conductivity 1600µS/cm. Same site during the summer months had pH 7.2and conductivity 580 µS/cm, demonstrating importance ofsnowmelt and seasonality to water composition. continued on page 11

Figure 2. Red Mountain, an unmined Zn-Pb volcanogenicmassive sulfide deposit in the Alaska Range that I am presentlyinvestigating. Very low pH (down to 2.4), high metal content,and exceedingly high rare-earth content are found in springsand streams draining the quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration zone.Photograph by Bob Eppinger from a helicopter coming in for alanding along the ridgeline, July, 2003.

from the New Mexico to Wyoming borders, a studymodeling the environmental geochemistry of porphyryand massive sulfide deposits, and a mineral resourceassessment of Afghanistan (requiring that I dust off andre-discover my exploration geochemistry skills). Potentialmineral resource assessment work on remote continentslooms over the horizon for me as the USGS MineralResources Program pursues funding sources beyond thetraditional Federal monies for in-country work.

Science in the U.S. Federal government for me hasbeen and continues to be a very rewarding experience andhas taken me to many diverse geologic environments.Foreign language and even whitewater river-running skillsare occasionally utilized. Bureaucratic challenges must bedealt with along the way, but I suspect that similarchallenges present themselves in large corporations aswell. Declining funds for national geological surveyorganizations have been and will continue to be difficultobstacles to overcome, requiring retooling of scientistsand innovative solutions. I particularly have enjoyed

A Seredipitous Journey…continued from page 9


delving into the environmental geochemistry of unminedmineral deposits. Geochemists with a strong backgroundin ore deposits bring a much clearer understanding ofnatural geochemical variability to the table when dealingwith environmental scientists and engineers who usuallydo not have a good understanding of naturally high metalaccumulations in the crust.

Teamwork, whether in government, industry, oracademia is critical for success in modern geoscienceprojects, where data acquisition commonly ranges fromsatellite based instrumentation to microanalyticaltechniques on individual mineral grains. However, thereis no substitute for on-the-ground fieldwork. Fieldwork inremote, wild places; working with other geoscienceprofessionals on a team; intellectual stimulation;mentoring young, impressionable students; seeing newgeology; ever-changing analytical techniques; travel by

A Seredipitous Journey…continued from page 10

foot, helicopter, small fixed-wing bush plane, horse, andsometimes by whitewater raft(!); and exposure to diverse,local cultures are just a few reasons why I continue toenjoy immensely the work that I do in appliedgeochemistry after some 25 years. There are manyproblems to identify and solutions to discover for theyoung, aspiring, future applied geochemist!

On a final note, after four years of working for PaulTheobald, his lovely daughter Cathy asked me out. Inever would have asked her, as she was the boss’sdaughter. Cathy and I have been married for twenty-oneyears, and we have two wonderful children, Paul andRosemary. We all miss Grandpa Paul a lot. He wasperceptive and keen even in his final days.

Thank you EXPLORE for allowing me theopportunity to outline and philosophize on this ratherserendipitous journey through applied geochemistry froma Federal geologist’s perspective. Requests for privatewhitewater river running permits are due next month, so Ibetter get busy filling them out!

Best Student Talk (a tie): LOCATING ORE UNDERCOVER USING A BACTERIALLEACH AND OTHER GEOCHEMICAL TECHNIQUESRyan R P Noble, CRC LEME / Curtin University of Technology LITHOGEOCHEMISTRY OF THE COLLAHUASIPORPHYRY CU-MO AND EPITHERMAL CU-AG (-AU)CLUSTER, NORTHERN CHILE: PEARCE ELEMENT RATIOAND STABLE ISOTOPE VECTORS TO OREEsteban Urqueta1, Kurt Kyser 1, Alan Clark1, Cliff Stanley2, ChristopherOates3

Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, Queen’sUniversity, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L 3N6.1

Department of Geology, Acadia University, Wolfville, NovaScotia, Canada, B4P 2R6.2

20 Carlton Terrace, London, England, SW1 Y5AN.3

Best Student Poster: LITHOGEOCHEMICAL CONSTRAINTS ON THE HOSTROCK, HYDROTHERMAL ALTERATION ANDWEATHERING OF THE GROUNDRUSH GOLD DEPOSITD.M.K. Murphy1, C.R. Stanley2, S.G. Hagemann1

1Centre for Exploration Targeting, School of Earth and GeographicalSciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia,[email protected] & [email protected]. of Geology, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia,[email protected]

Best Professional Talk:CARBON ISOTOPIC EVIDENCE FOR MICROBIALINFLUENCE IN EXOTIC-TYPE COPPER ORE DEPOSITS:IMPLICATIONS FOR EXPLORATION WHERE MICROBESARE INVOLVEDKurt Kyser1, Alan Clark1, Mark Nelson1, Esteban Urqueta1, Chris Oates2

Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering, Queen’sUniversity, Kingston, Canada1; Anglo American plc, London, England2

Honourable Mentions:DEEP PENETRATING GEOCHEMISTRY, FROM SOURCETO SURFACE: EXPERIMENTAL AND FIELD RESULTSBrian Townley1, AlvaroPuig2, Tomas Vargas3,Jacobus Le Roux1, Peter J.Rogers

1 Department of Geology, University of Chile2 Codelco –Chile3 Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Chile

SOIL AND LAKE SEDIMENT GEOCHEMISTRY INEXPLORATION FOR KIMBERLITE: NWT, CANADAJohn Gravel, Acme Analytical Laboratories Ltd.; Ray Hrkac, GGLDiamond Corp. Ltd., Paul Richardson, Geochemical Consultant

Best Professional Poster:USING GROUNDWATER TO VECTOR TOWARDSMINERALISATION UNDER COVER: THE CURNAMONAPROVINCEPatrice de Caritat1 and Dirk Kirste2

1Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and MineralExploration, c/o Geoscience Australia, GPO Box 378, Canberra, ACT2601, Australia2Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and MineralExploration, c/o Department of Earth and Marine Sciences, TheAustralian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia

Honourable Mentions:SOIL AND BIOGEOCHMICAL SIGNATURES OF THEARIPUANÃ BASE METAL DEPOSIT – MATO GROSSO,BRAZILMatthias Cornelius1, Claudio G. Porto2, Colin E. Dunn3, Charles R.M.Butt1, Christopher Oates4 & Roque Coelho5

1CSIRO Exploration and Mining / CRC LEME Perth, 2Departamento deGeologia - UFRJ - Rio de Janeiro, 3Consulting Geochemist, Sidney BC,Canada, 4Anglo American plc, London, 5Anglo Brazil, Cuiaba, BrazilCorresponding author: [email protected] MINERAL HOSTS FOR GOLD AND PATHFINDERELEMENTS AT THE MOUNT GIBSON AND LANCEFIELDGOLD DEPOSITS,WESTERN AUSTRALIAR. M. Hough1, R. R. Anand1, M. Norman2 and C. Phang1

1CRCLEME, CSIRO Exploration and Mining, PO Box 1130, Bentley, WA61022Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University,Canberra, ACT [email protected]

Best Talks and Posters at the IGES 2005 in Perth

NUMBER 129 EXPLORE

Paul Theobald, one of the pioneers in the fieldof exploration geochemistry, died at his home inGolden, Colorado on July 16, 2005. He was agraduate of Stanford University and spent almost hisentire career with the United States GeologicalSurvey (USGS). He was an acknowledged expert indrainage geochemisty, particularly in arid terrains.

Paul began work with the USGS in 1951,“retired” in 1990, but continued to work as ascientist emeritus for the better part of anotherdecade. His extensive contributions to the USGSwere recognized through receipt of the MeritoriousService Award in 1985, and the DistinguishedService Award (the highest honorary award grantedby the U.S Department of the Interior) in 1992. Hecontributed in both scientific and managementpositions throughout his career: as committeemember, committee chairman, coordinator, USGSBranch Chief, and supervisory geologist onnumerous technical and planning committees, bothinternally and externally as a USGS representative.

A brief review of programs that he participatedin provides an appreciation of the breadth of hiscontributions to both the USGS and theinternational scientific community at large: heavymineral studies in the southern Appalachians;mineral resource investigations in the Berthoud Passquadrangle, Colorado project (which contributed tothe discovery of the Henderson molybdenum depositby Climax-Amax), mineral resource and geochemicalstudies of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, Idaho,the Williams Fork / St. Louis Peak Roadless Area,Colorado, the Ajo quadrangle, Arizona, and the SanCarlos Apache Indian Reservation, Arizona;assignment to the USGS Mission in Saudi Arabia;geochemical baseline studies in the NationalPetroleum Reserve, Alaska; geologic mapping andgeochemical studies in the Northern Sonora MexicoProject (a joint USA-Mexico project); andgeochemical investigations in the Xinjiang-UygurAutonomous Region, northwestern China.

He was an active member of the GeochemicalSociety, the American Association for theAdvancement of Science, the Society of EconomicGeologists, the Colorado Scientific Society, theGeological Society of America, and the Associationof Exploration Geochemists (AEG) / Association ofApplied Geochemists (AAG).

Paul was the Chairman of the OrganizingCommittee for the 7th International GeochemicalExploration Symposium (IGES) in Golden in 1978and, with John Watterson, edited the proceedingsvolume. He served the AEG as President in 1979 /1980. He shared his expertise through organizationof and contributions to numerous short courses and

workshops sponsored byAEG and other scientificgroups. He gave theKeynote address at the13th IGES in Rio deJaneiro in 1989 and, intypical fashion, shared theauthorship with his othercolleagues.

Two scientific aspectsstand out in my mind whenI think of Paul, bothrelated to drainagegeochemistry. His 1956paper entitled “The gold

pan as a quantitative tool” forewarned of his contributionsin the area of heavy mineral geochemistry. How many ofus did he introduce to this art? Yes, explorationgeochemistry is still both science and art! His earlyexperience with precipitates of aluminum, iron, andmanganese at Deer Creek, Summit County, Colorado,resulting in his paper with T.T. Chao in 1976 on “thesignificance of secondary iron and manganese oxides ingeochemical exploration” demonstrated his leadership inlabile drainage geochemistry. This paper bridged the gapbetween the colorimetric analysis days of the 1950s andthe rediscovery of selective extraction analysis in the early1990s.

Many have commented on Paul’s passion for geology.What was even more to his credit was the infectiousmanner in which he transferred that passion to others.When demonstrating a technique or discussing a concept,Paul often took the devil’s advocate position just to makesure we were really thinking things through for ourselves.Numerous young scientists, both domestic andinternational, have benefited from Paul’s supportive andchallenging mentoring. I’m proud to say that I’m amongthat special group. Paul was and is a role model for us all.Other passions that Paul enjoyed include wood turning,making musical instruments (guitar, pipe organ,harpsichord, clavichord, and dulcimer) and fly fishing –particularly for the small, but difficult to catch, brookiesfound in the Colorado Rockies.

He leaves his wife of 53 years, Jean, daughters MaryDoherty (geochemist – Reno, Nevada) and CatharineEppinger (Veterinarian – Nederland, Colorado),grandchildren Jonathon, Jessica, Zachary, and StephanieDoherty, and Paul and Rosemary Eppinger; and sisterMartha Peterson (Reno, Nevada).

Memorial contributions may be made to theDistinguished Geochemist Scholarship Fund, Associationof Applied Geochemists, P.O. Box 26099, Nepean,Ontario, Canada. K2H 9R0.

December 7, 2005Graham ClossColorado School of MinesGolden Colorado, U.S.A. [email protected]

ObituaryPaul Kellogg Theobald


Automated Data Exchange Format(ADX)

Computer-based data transfer from a laboratory to aclient is now the norm in mineral exploration. Data areimmediately interpreted and plotted, taking intoconsideration what is known about the sample preparationand analytical methods employed. With time, however,databases grow, and individuals come and go. Often, theanalytical values become detached from the methods usedto generate those numbers and the situation becomesconfusing at best or misleading at worst. I suspect most ofus have, at some time, received a spreadsheet with columnheaders Au, Cu, Pb… exhibiting three or more differentdetection limits for the same elements. So what does thatmean?

Individual companies have developed custom reportformats which fulfill most of their needs, today. Oftenthese are not sufficiently complete or flexible, particularlyin the area of sample prep. As a result, commerciallaboratories must supply data in literally hundreds offormats with a constant need to retool and adjust eachtime a lab, client or method is changed.

The idea of developing a standardized electronicformat for reporting analytical data, together with all ofthe important meta data, has gained acceptance amongseveral groups. With a universal format, software couldbe developed to import analytical data, including thecritical meta data, without human intervention. At anygiven time, you could trace back an individual number tothe sample and procedures employed. Most importantly,that software would remain stable for several years.

A project to define and advance such a format(named ADX) has been on-going over the past few yearsin fits and starts, and is currently stalled. A group ofinterested parties met in Vancouver in early November toevaluate the current status and make suggesting forrestarting. Representatives from ALS-Chemex, PlacerDome, BHP-Billiton, Kennecott and Newmont werepresent. Opinions varied, however, in summary:

• The concept of a universal laboratory data exchangeformat, including the critical meta data, would be ofbenefit to the individual companies as well as theindustry in general.

• The universal laboratory exchange format should beentirely open to the public, with no private ownership,fees or membership requirements.

• The ADX project should be restricted to therequirements of analytical data exchange betweenlaboratories and clients. It should not be burdenedwith the requirements and restrictions of otherfunctions.

• The logical host of the format is the Association ofApplied Geochemists. It is envisaged that this wouldinclude:

+ Publication of the format on the AAG web site

+ A committee that would look afteradministration, updates, and funding, ifnecessary.

• Given the potential complexity and countlessvariations possible, particularly in sample preparation,the XML language is probably the only reasonablechoice for a universal lab data format.

• After three years and more than $US80,000 we aregenerally disappointed that we are not closer to a finalsolution.

• The root cause of the disappointment is largely due topoor project management.

+ Contractors were given money, but inadequatedirection, goals, and objectives. As a result, theproject drifted from the original objectives.

+ Geochemists, geologists and database experts, didnot become actively involved and providesufficient feedback and review of contractoractivities.

• The ADX initiative should be restarted, with morediligent project management.

The following activities have been proposed:

1. Potential users of ADX, including geochemists,geologists and laboratory analysts should define therequirements of ADX files, from a user’s standpoint.This would include selection of parameter names,acceptable ranges and level of necessity. It isanticipated that this would require the concentratedeffort of a cloistered group for 2-4 days.

2. Database professionals from both the lab and clientorganizations would need to vet and qualify the “wishlist” of the above group. This would probably requireanother 1-2 days.

3. Recommendations from steps 1 and 2 would becirculated to a wider audience for comment.

4. A “request to bid” would be developed based on theexperiences from the first three steps.

5. Provided funding could be secured, the contractwould be let and ADX would be completed.

The next meeting, at which we intend to accomplish item1 listed above, is tentatively schedule to occur around thetime of the Roundup in Vancouver, BC. Interestedparties are invited to contact [email protected]

Owen Lavin

NUMBER 129 EXPLORE

Awards Presented at the IGES/IAGS in PerthWinner of the Association Gold Medal – 2005 -Gwendy HallOral citation given by Gerry Govett at the IGES in Perth onSeptember 27th 2005.

To do justice to GwendyHall’s achievements wouldrequire at least a full sessionof this Symposium. As thisis not possible, we havecompiled this briefsummary to give you just ataste, a flavour of herachievements.

All of us here havebeen influenced by ourGold Medal recipient andfive Fellows of theAssociation - Rob Bowell,David Garnett, Barry Smee and me - under the leadershipof Eion Cameron (who sadly is not with us tonight) -nominated Gwendy for the award.

We have all read her papers and have used heranalytical methods. The journals that she has edited arefound on our bookshelves and in our libraries. We haveheard her speak at conferences, workshops and companymeetings.

Gwendy has spent her career at the Geological Surveyof Canada where she established a laboratory to developanalytical methods in exploration and environmentalgeochemistry. At first her laboratory served mainly theApplied Geochemistry group of the Survey. This work isreflected in the methods used for the NationalGeochemical Reconnaissance surveys, which haveproduced geochemical maps for resource andenvironmental purposes covering more than half ofCanada.

Along the way, the GSC suffered substantial budgetand staffing cutbacks. Does this sound familiar? ButGwendy went out and forged a series of alliances withmining companies, commercial laboratories, andinstrument manufacturers to provide funding to expandthe activities of the laboratory. This vigorous interactionwith other organisations and scientists has been ahallmark of her career.

Her experience in ICP-Mass Spectrometry isunequalled, having helped test the prototype for the firstcommercial ICP-MS, manufactured by a Canadiancompany, Sciex. The ICP-MS formed the basis for anumber of innovative developments, notably in selectiveleaches. A particular problem with these is that theelements, once dissolved, may reabsorb on to the matrix.In a series of papers she has defined this problem andproposed solutions. With commercial partners she hasdeveloped “designer” leaches that may be applied inexploration and environmental geochemistry whereprevious methods were found to be less effective.

The field of hydrogeochemistry has been enhanced byGwendy’s work. She has been particularly influential indeveloping sampling and preservation protocols that arenow accepted internationally by environmental regulators.One of her most significant tasks resulted from aninvitation from the Canadian Department of ForeignAffairs to develop geochemical methods to detectunderground nuclear test explosions. There was a need tohave robust methods to test for violations of theComprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

The work, carried out in Nevada in collaboration withBarringer Research, was resoundingly successful with highcontrast anomalies for volatile elements using selectiveleaches, whereas previous attempts using total digestionsof the soil showed no anomalies.

Her output of publications is prodigious - 130 papersin refereed journals and books, 46 GSC publications and64 papers in a variety of other publications, includingExplore. She has been an editor of important specialissues, most notably one on selective leaches in theJournal of Geochemical Exploration.

Gwendy has also given immense service to thisAssociation. After serving as an Editor-in-Chief of theJournal of Geochemical Exploration, she undertook thedifficult task of founding a new journal: “Geochemistry:Exploration, Environment, Analysis”, now in its fifth yearof publication.

Gwendy has also been President and long-timeTreasurer of the AAG. Since the AAG office moved toOttawa in 1995, she has supervised the working of theoffice.

These achievements were attained not solely by anastute scientific mind and hard work. Her friendly andgenerous character has permitted her to establish - andretain - strong working relationships with a remarkablerange of scientists from many countries and differentdisciplines. The cooperative nature of her work may begauged by the statistic that over the past 10 years no lessthan 120 persons have been co-authors of her papers.

Ladies and gentlemen, I could not introduce a morepopular or deserving winner of the Association’s goldmedal, Gwendy Hall.

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SUPPORSUPPORSUPPORSUPPORSUPPORT YT YT YT YT YOUROUROUROUROURORORORORORGGGGGANIZAANIZAANIZAANIZAANIZATIONTIONTIONTIONTION

ADADADADADVERVERVERVERVERTISE!TISE!TISE!TISE!TISE!


Honorary Membership – Ian Nichol.Presented at the IGES/IAGS in Perth, September, 2005

A reply from Ian:

I was completelysurprised and absolutelydelighted to hear in Augustthat I had been awarded anHonorary Membership ofthe AAG, to be presentedat the upcomingSymposium in Perth.. Priorto being advised of thisaward, I had been verymuch looking forward toattending the Symposium tomeet former students andto get an update on recentexploration geochemistry

activities but regrettably my doctor had advised me thatsuch a trip would be unwise. I am most grateful to BillCoker for expressing my deep appreciation of the awardon my behalf at the Symposium.

In short, I am proud of the achievements of theExploration Geochemistry program at Queen’s butconsider this to be significantly due to team work andcommunication which I will try to summarize. Withregard to personal experience, following training atDurham, Queen’s and Durham Universities for my B.Sc,M.A. and Ph.D respectively, I had the good fortune toserve my “apprenticeship” in geochemical exploration atImperial College with John Webb and Co. from 1961-1969. During this period I was involved in assisting in thesupervision of research programs in Sierra Leone,Zambia, Ireland and the U.K. As you will appreciate,these programs provided me with an exposure toexploration in a broad range of surface explorationenvironments.

In the late 1960s interest was expressed in Canada formore applied geological research being undertaken atCanadian Universities so Queen’s appointed me in 1969to initiate activities in exploration geochemistry, acontributing factor undoubtedly being field visits to theSudbury and Bancroft areas and field experience inQuebec and Labrador in the summers of 1957 and 1958while a graduate student at Queen’s. In point of fact, asignificant number of graduates of the Imperial Collegeprogram had got jobs in Canada and the U.S. without anybackground experience in North America so the plan toinitiate a program at Queen’s University made sense,notwithstanding the fact of Imperial College graduatesfulfilling extremely important roles in explorationgeochemistry in North America.

Over the period 1969-1997 graduate students atQueen’s undertook research on a broad range ofexploration geochemistry projects, mostly in Canada butalso in Chile, China, Thailand and the U.S., largelysponsored financially by the private sector andgovernment agencies. I attribute the overall success of the

program to active technical communication and feedbackfrom the private sector representatives and from theGeological Survey of Canada and Ontario GeologicalSurvey. In addition to individual research projects,attention was paid to field trips to see the complexity ofglacial stratigraphy and appropriate geochemicalexploration strategies led by G.S.C. staff and alsoundertaking orientation surveys to gain familiarity withquestions to be addressed in designing appropriateexploration programs in the future. At the same time Isincerely acknowledge the critical analytical guidance byBob Foster at Queen’s and services by various analyticalcompanies (Bondar Clegg, Activation Services, X-RayAssay Labs and Overburden Drilling Management).The subsequent career achievements of graduates in theprivate sector, government surveys and universitiesindicate the overall significance of the Queen’s program.Contributing factors to this included:(a) taking various graduate courses in the broad field of

economic geology with a bearing on exploration;

(b) advice from professors of geology and geographywithin the University on aspects relevant to theirresearch;

(c) recognition that successful exploration geochemistryinvolves a multi-stage program: Appropriate Designand Planning, Sampling, Sample Preparation,Analyses, Data Presentation and Interpretation;

(d) graduate students bringing very worthwhilebackground experience to the program.

You may know that I was the first Secretary of theAEG (1970-72) which gave me exposure to a broaderrange of activities in geochemical exploration, President ofthe AEG in 1974 and Distinguished Lecturer in 1986. Ialso gained considerable exposure to world-wideexploration geochemistry activities with the UnitedNations.

The program in exploration geochemistry at Queen’snow run by Kurt Kyser is largely based on isotope analysesand has made very significant contributions to explorationsuccess for uranium, nickel, copper and zinc. Isotopeanalysis in use as a measure of elements dispersingtowards the surface can indicate deposits buried underhundreds of metres of bedrock and overburden. At therecent symposium in Perth, Kurt Kyser won the award forthe best professional presentation for a paper describingthe influence of microbes in creating responses related tocopper deposits. In addition, a Queen’s graduate student,Esteban Urqueta, tied for the best student presentationdescribing the role of vectors as indicators of proximity toporphyry copper. Thus I am very glad to say thatsignificant research in exploration geochemistry continuesat Queen’s.

Should readers be interested in communicating withProfessor Kyser re work underway, future research orpotential graduate studies, his E-mail address is [email protected] .

NUMBER 129 EXPLORE

Readers' Forum

Commercially Motivated/PromotionalTalks at the IGES/IAGS, PerthSept. 24, 2005Dear Fellow AAG Members,

I write this letter after returning home from the verysuccessful 22nd International Geochemical ExplorationSymposium in Perth, Western Australia in September. Thelocal organizing committee, headed by co-chairs Drs. PaulMorris and Nigel Radford, and assisted by the conferenceorganizing group Promaco, put on an excellent symposiumthat was very well organized, scientifically informative,and socially enjoyable; in short, it was just about what wewould want the biennial meeting of our association to be.However, although I came away from the end-of-symposium social hour with a strong feeling of satisfactionfor the conference, I was disappointed with a smallproportion of the talks and posters presented. Thisdisappointment stems from the commercially-motivated,promotional orientation of these presentations. Thesetalks and posters, although ostensibly scientific in theiraims, unfortunately ended up as rather obviousadvertising campaigns for proprietary analytical methodsoffered by some commercial laboratories. In one case, itwasn’t just the contents of the presentation that was‘morphed’ into a sales pitch; the actual title of thepresentation was changed to include references to thediscussed proprietary method.

As an ad hoc contributor to the local organizingcommittee, I know that the technical program co-chairsmade a very significant effort to accept for presentationonly new and significant scientific contributions to appliedgeochemistry. Inclusion of presentations had to be basedstrictly, and appropriately, on the content of the abstractssubmitted. Unfortunately, several abstracts did not meetthe required standards because of their overly commercialorientation, and these were not accepted for presentation.However, having attended the talks and having read theabstracts associated with them, it is clear to me that somegeochemists submitted abstracts with themes that soundedscientific enough to warrant inclusion in the technicalprogram, but then exploited their time in front of thesymposium audience to ‘pitch their products’ viacommercially-oriented presentations. Furthermore,because so many authors submitted abstracts to the IGESfor oral presentation, and many of these had to berelegated to poster sessions because of the limited numberof time slots for talks, the unintentional inclusion ofcommercially-oriented talks deprived the oralpresentation of a number of worthy scientific researchefforts by other geochemists.

I have two significant objections to the presentation ofcommercially-oriented talks and posters at a professionalmeeting like the IGES. The first is that the commercially-oriented presentations generally provided inadequatebackground on the nature of the geochemical results. The

proprietary analytical techniques employed were notdescribed, and the results were presented in the form ofun-disclosed numerical parameters derived from themeasured concentrations, which themselves were notpresented. Both of these deficiencies prevented theaudience from using their geochemical background tointerpret the results. How can a geochemist interpret thedata that support an idea when they don’t know how thesamples were digested or numerically processed? Whatmineral species were attacked? What were the actualconcentrations obtained and how different are these fromthe detection limit? Without these critical pieces ofinformation regarding the geochemical and mineralogicalfoundation of the results, any presentation looses itcredibility. Essentially, the audience is forced to take theword of the presenter without any way of technicallyevaluating the validity of the results.

This brings me to my second objection to thesecommercially-oriented presentations. All of thesepresentations were given by geochemists with a financialstake in the methods employed. This creates a majorproblem. How can the audience accept the word of thepresenter when such a conflict of interest exists? How canthe author be perceived as an objective scientificobserver? Are the results compromised by this lack ofimpartiality? Clearly, when science and marketingoverlap, as in these cases, the technical foundation of anypresentation is significantly undermined.

I do not believe that commercially-orientedpresentations have a place in the technical program of anIGES. Furthermore, I believe that the AAG membershipexpects IGES presentations to air only dispassionate andobjective scientific results that advance our understandingof geochemistry and its application in the exploration andenvironmental milieus. The presentation of marketing-oriented talks and posters disrespects the symposiumaudience and represents a self-centred desire to advancethe personal financial interests of the authors in a venuethat is not designed for that purpose.

To rectify this problem, I call on those geochemiststhat made such commercially-oriented presentations tovoluntarily refrain from continuing this behaviour atfuture IGES meetings, and at other meetings sponsoredby the AAG, so that only truly scientific presentations areincluded in the technical program. I hope this will besufficient, as I don’t think it would be appropriate torequire authors to sign letters acknowledging theirindependence from financial benefits associated with theprocedures employed in their presentations in order tocurtail this activity. Other professional associations(mostly in the medical realm) do require suchdeclarations.

This said, the problem of commercially-orientatedpresentations will not go away unless an alternativesolution is identified. As a result, I would suggest that itmay be appropriate to include in an IGES, sessionsoutside of the formal technical program that addresscommercial geochemical services of whatever ilk. In these



A New Low?Dear Fellow AAG Members,

As a sometime reader of the tabloid press I wasastonished to receive my recent copy of Explore 128complete with an obvious advertiser’s article sharing thefront page with our president’s message. I submit thatthe Association needs to make some clear definitionbetween the need to inform our Members of the latestanalytical developments and that of the clear promotionof commercial laboratory products - which are inevitablyalways portrayed in glowing terms.

In most newspapers this is clearly labeled as anadvertisement at the top of the article. In this case ourmembers are clearly receiving far more than an intendedupdate. I would suggest that in cases such as these that

Increasing Membership: The SantiagoExample, An Open Letter to

Council and Executive.

Dear Fellow AAG members,I have just left a recent meeting with Brian Townley

where he told me of the finalization of the previous plansfor the student chapter here in Chile. This is great newsand is a permanent testament and legacy to the hard workof the members of the Chile 2001 Santiago IGES LOC.This group had the foresight to set up a student travelbursary program as a permanent tribute to the excellentcompany financial support for that conference. Apartfrom basking in some of the reflected praise as jointGeneral Chair of the Santiago IGES it also behooves meto write this letter to indicate that this type of occurrenceis perhaps a way for consideration about how to nurtureand develop our membership base.

Over the years the Association has seen manyattempts to increase membership. Traditionally the IGESalways saw a significant boost incrementally which carriedover to the next one 2 years later and so on.

Unfortunately with the typical economic cycle ofboom and bust in the major recruiting area, the miningindustry, this has seen a gradual decline as the industryhas reduced staffing levels in exploration. Notableattempts to reverse this trend have been taken, the latestenthusiastically led by Bob Jackson and his committee.Most of these attempts have focused on the use ofpersonal networks to pass on the message as even theIGES recruiting mechanism has foundered due to small oreven loss making ventures.

The question is why has the Santiago IGES andfollow-on seen a reverse to this trend and how can this beapplied to other parts of the world to produce similarresults of increased membership and interest?

Firstly the presence of a group of committedvolunteers certainly helps along with an active RegionalCouncilor such as Brian. In Chile one of the key elementshas been the preservation of the student travel bursary putin place by myself on behalf of the Santiago IGES LOC.This has served both as a way of both thanking industrycontributions that enabled a profit to be made but also tokeep the Association profile alive in Santiago and Chile ingeneral. This seems to have worked well as we have seena winning student go to Dublin and Perth IGES. TheAssociation also kept its agreement with the SantiagoIGES LOC by providing a free registration and workshopparticipation to the IGES.

Another factor here is the widespread interest of

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Readers' Forum continued from Page 16

sessions, proprietary analytical procedures, data analysisservices, geochemical software, and other commercialgeochemical ventures could be described, marketed anddiscussed. There is a precedent for this, as an extra-curricular evening session involving a proprietarygeochemical analysis method was informally held at the1995 Townsville IGES. I believe that including suchcommercially-oriented sessions in an IGES will benefitthe association’s membership, as the marketing andscience activities of the conference can be well and trulyseparated, and commercial presentations would not thenbe confused with the formal scientific talks and posters.Given that at our Annual General Meeting during theIGES, the AAG membership informally asked council tolook into the possibility of holding our IGES meetingsevery third year, perhaps other format changes to theIGES, such as a commercial session, could also beconsidered at the same time.

Our association can serve society best by advancingthe scientific principles of applied geochemistry, not thespecific financial interests of some of the entrepreneurialgeochemists in our midsts. Our association’s health willlargely depend on how well we can address theexploration and environmental problems of today and thefuture, and this will require that we not derail technicaladvances by mixing science and marketing, but rather thatwe be both honest and objective in the presentation ofapplied geochemistry research.

I encourage others with similar or alternative views onthis subject to similarly share their thoughts in a futureissue of EXPLORE.

Sincerely,

Cliff StanleyAssociate ProfessorApplied Geochemistry & Economic GeologyDepartment of Geology, Acadia UniversityWolfville, Nova Scotia, [email protected]


the laboratory concerned also publish cases where theirtechnology did not work so well, all too often the realworld scenario.

Sincerely

Peter J. [email protected]

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NUMBER 129 EXPLORE

Readers' Forum continued from Page 17

CALENDAR OFEVENTS

These events also appear on the web page atwww.appliedgeochemists.orgInternational, national, and regional meetings of interestto colleagues working in exploration, environmental andother areas of applied geochemistry.

January 4-6, 2006 Mineral Deposit Studies Group 29th

Annual Winter Meeting, The Natural History Museum,London. See website www.mdsqconference.org.uk. [email protected]

January 23-26, 2006 BCYCM Mineral ExplorationRoundup 2006, Vancouver, BC, Canada “Striving forExcellence in Exploration”. Website: www.bc-mining-house.com/roundupoverview.html

March 5-8th, 2006 Prospectors and DevelopersAssocaition 2006Conference Toronto, Canada. Websitewww.pdac.ca/pdac/conv/index.html

March 13-16, 2006. Alaska Miners Association 20th

Fairbanks Biennial Conference Arctic InternationalMining Symposium, Westmark Fairbanks ConferenceCentre – Fairbanks, Alaska.

March 27-29, 2006 SME Annual Meeting, St.Louis,Missouri. Website: www.smenet.org/AnnualMeeting2006/index.cfm

April 3-7, 2006 Backbone of the Americas – Patagoniato Alaska, Co-sponsored by the Geological Society ofAmerica and the Association Geologica Argentina.

Mendoza, Argentina. Website www.geosociety.org/meetings/06boa/index.htm

April 10-12, 2006 Scientific Conference – TopicalProblems of Ore Formation and Metallogeny. RussianAcademy of Sciences, Institute of Geology,. Novosibirsk,Russia. Website: www.uiqqm.nsc.nu/conf/conf100

April 5-16, 2006. Modular Course in Exploration forMagmatic Ore Deposits, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada..Email: [email protected], Website: http://earthsciences.laurentian.ca.

May 14-16, 2006 Wealth Creation in the MineralsIndustry, SEG 2006 Conference in Keystone, Colorado.Website www.seg2006.or

May 14-17, 2006 GAC-MAC Annual Meeting “206 isthe International Year of the Planet”, Montreal, QC,Canada. Website www.er.uquam.ca/nobel/gacmac/welcome.html

May 14-17, 2006 CIM’s VANCOUVER 2006 – “CreatingValue with Values”. Website www.cim.org/vancouver2006

May 14-18, 2006 International conference onContinental Volcanism, Guangzhou. Websitewww.iavcei2006.org

2006 Precious Metals Symposium. Hosted by theSociety for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration. Seewebsite for details: www.iseg.2006.com/welcome.tm

July 2-7, 2006 18th AGC:Australian Earth ScienceConvention 2006 Melbourne Exhibition and ConventionCentre, Melbourne, Australia. Websitewww.earth2006.org.edu.org

13-15 September 2006 First International Seminar onMine Closure, Perth, Western Australia. Websitewww.acq.uwa.edu.au

27 August – 1 September 2006 16th Annual VMGoldschmidt Conference 2006 Melbourne Exhibitionand Convention Centre, Melbourne, Australia. Websitewww.goldschmidt2006.org

24-29 September 2006 IGCP 486 Au-Ag-telluride-selenide deposits. Field Workshop, Izmir, Turkey. [email protected]

Sept 25-30 7th International Symposium onEnvironmental Geochemistry (2006) Beijing, China

June 2007 23rd International Applied GeochemistrySymposium, Oveido, Spain

Please let this column know of your events by sendingdetails to:Chris BennBHP BillitonSuite 800 – Four Bentall Centre1055 Dunsmuir StreetVancouver V7X 1L2 BC CanadaTEL: 604 632 1493FAX: 604-683 4125e-mail: [email protected]

students in environmental issues – the possibility toparticipate in a wine project I am putting together jointlywith the Universidad de Chile also generated a lot ofinterest. Present plans call for solidifying the localchapter by soliciting financial operating support from theSantiago Exploration and Mining Association (SEMA).This sister organization was key to the fund raising for theSantiago IGES. SEMA have offered to coordinate annualcontributions from companies based in Chile to bothmaintain the chapter and also facilitate professionalmonthly presentations and lastly but very importantly theon going social activities such as the famous Friday NightBeer in the Geopub.

More news will no doubt be forthcoming from Brainin his Explore updates and from any visitors who are downthis way.

Saludos from the Cono Sur

Peter RogersNovember 2005


New TechnologyChinese Technology Applied to theSearch for Buried Mineral Depositis inSouth Australia

Electro-geochemical “CHIM” techniques, developedby Chinese researchers, are undergoing trials in SouthAustralia to assist in the search for buried and “blind”mineral deposits. Surveys were recently conducted atDominion Mining Ltd’s Challenger Gold Mine southwestof Coober Pedy in the state’s far north, at Havilah Ltd’scopper-gold-molybdenum prospect at Kalkaroo, northwestof Cockburn on the SA-NSW border, and at Gould’s Damuranium prospect on tenements held by Southern CrossResources Inc. These surveys are the first use of theChinese variation of the CHIM technique under aridconditions, in the Australian outback.

The CHIM (CHastichnoe Izvlechennye Metallov)technique of electro-chemical prospecting was developedby Russian scientists in the early 1970s. Ongoing researchand modification by Professor Luo Xianrong of GuilinUniversity of Technology have resulted in severalvariations on the technique aimed, in part, at simplifi-cation to improve mobility for deployment in difficultterrains. Luo has successes acknowledged in China usingmodified CHIM techniques to locate deep extensions toknown ore and outlining new ore systems buried beneathregolith. These include the Jinwozi gold deposits at Hamiin the Xinjiang Autonomous Region with extensionslocated at 160 m depth in bedrock with 10 m of residualand transported regolith cover, and Yangcheng lead-zincdeposit in Hubei province at 200 m in karstic Triassiclimestone (Luo et al., 2004).

For the Australian demonstration, a simplified andhighly mobile system was used. An electric current,supplied by a 12 v battery, drives mobile ions from thesurrounding soil and sub-surface to specially coatedcarbon electrodes buried in the soil. Electrode coupleswere placed at 20 m intervals along surveyed lines. After agiven time, generally 24 - 48 hours, the electrodes wereexhumed and the coating removed and dispatched foranalysis. The method relies on the leakage of ions from anore body to the surface where the applied current collectsions from a much larger volume than would be feasiblewith more traditional soil sampling methods. Thedemonstration sites include areas currently beinginvestigated by a variety of geochemical techniques todetermine if a geochemical response is detectable at thesurface and if so, the likely mechanism for transport of themetal ions from the ore to the near surface.

The demonstration surveys and continuingcollaborative research in South Australia is supported byPrimary Industries and Resources, South Australia(PIRSA) and is integrated with current activities of theCo-operative Research Centre for LandscapeEnvironments and Mineral Exploration (CRC LEME) inwhich PIRSA is a core participant. The project hasrecently received backing from the Australian Governmentunder the Australia-China Special Fund for Scientific &

Technological Cooperation. Expenditure of $44,500 over3 years has been approved from the fund to Dr BaohongHou, project leader at PIRSA, for travel to China. TheChinese government has agreed to provide a similaramount to meet the travel expenses of Chineseresearchers on the project.

ReferenceLuo, X., Taofa, Z. and Hou, B., 2004: Thegeoelectrochemical extraction method (CHIM) inexploration for concealed ore deposits. In: I.C. Roach(Editor). Regolith 2004. CRC LEME: 230-233.

John KeelingAssistant Director CRC LEMEC/- PIRSA, 101 Grenfell Street, Adelaide SA 5000Email: [email protected]

Professors Luo Xianrong (left) and Zeng Nanshi from theGuilin Institute of Technology exhuming buried electrodes atthe Gould’s Dam uranium prospect

Coming soon in theAAG EXPLORE newsletter:

Technical articles and letters to the editor are encouraged assubmissions for discussion within the newsletter. Each issue ofEXPLORE contains a series of short discussion papers which provideeither an update on a particular geochemical topic, or presentcurrent debates about issues of interest. Suggestions for future“Focus” topics may be forwarded to the editor, Chris Benn (Email: [email protected])130 Technical Article—RAB Drilling and

Geochemistry—An Australian Perspective

Contributor Deadline February, 2006Publication Date: March/April 2006

NUMBER 129 EXPLORE

New Members and Fellows The following applications were reviewed by theAdmissions Committee and approved by Council.

FELLOWSMr. Martin J. Davidson3636 Haynie AvenueDallas, TXUSA 75205Membership #3837

Dr. Patrice de CaritatSenior Research ScientistCRC LEME, Geoscience AustraliaGPO Box 378Canberra, ACTAUSTRALIA, 2601Membership #3640

Mr. Cary L. FoulkSenior Geologist/GeochemistMWH Global1475 Pine Grove Road, #109PO Box 774018Steamboat Springs CO, USA 80477Membership #2111

Steve Windle4 Lexia PlaceCarseldineQld, Australia, QLD 4034Membership # 3799

Professor David LentzUniversity of New BrunswickBox 4400FrederictonNB, Canada EB3 5A3Membership # 3226

STUDENT MEMBERSHIPS:Mr. Aristeo Nunez OthonGraduate StudentPosgrado en Ciencias de la TierraUniversidad Nacional ACalle Escobedo Num. 157.Entre Michoacan Y TabascoHermosillo, SonoraMEXICO, CP 83190Membership # 3834

Ms Carmina Jorquera ZunigaUniversidad de ChileLos Diamantes 0554, VillaLos Herdes, MaipuSantiago, CHILEMembership #3874

Ms. Tansy O’Connor-ParsonsMSc. CandidateAcadia University10504-127 StreetEdmonton, AB CANADA T5N 1V9Membership #3880

Ms. Rebecca SchaefeStudentAcadia University153 Spring StreetSummerside, PEI CANADA C1N 3G2Membership #3882

Ms. Karen HulmeStudentAdelaide University13 Liverpool Cres.Salisbury East, SA AUSTRALIA 5109Membership # 3883

Ms. Anna PettsStudentUniversity of AdelaideDept. of Geology & GeophysicsOP 313 Mawson LabsAdelaide, SA AUSTRALIA 5005Membership 3889

Mr. Nathan ReidStudentUniversity of Adelaide2/17 Clark StreetWayville, SAAUSTRALIA 5034Membership #3894

Mr. Esteban UrquetaStudentQueen’s UniversityDept. Geological Sciences36 Union StreetKingston, OntarioCANADA K7L 3N6Membership #3895

NON VOTING MEMBERSHIP:Mr. Erik Van NoortGeochemist, Gleneagle Gold Ltd.5/33 Churchill AvenueSubiaco, WA AUSTRALIA 6008Membership #3831

Mr. Ingar F. WalderProgram Director Kjeoy Research @Education CenterKjeoy, Vestbygd, NORWAY N-8581Membership #3832

Mr. Gordon SouthamAssociate Professor & CanadaResearch ChairUniversity of Western Ontario Dept.of Earth Sciences London, OntarioCanada N6A 5B7Membership #3833

Mr. Morton W. Coleman1780 San Pasqual St.Pasadena, California USA, 91106Membership # 3835

Ms. Kylie A. FosterResearch AssociateUniversity of British ColumbiaDept. of Earth & Ocean SciencesMineral Deposit Reseach Unit6339 Stores Rd.Vancouver, BC CANADA V6T 1Z4Membership # 3836

Mr. Basil E. WalkerEagle Exploration Co., Inc.PO Box 1300Amarillo, TX USA 79105AAG Membership #3838

Mr. John L. Clanton1220 Frost Bank Plaza802 No. Carancahua St.Corpus Christi, TX USA 78470AAG Membership #3839

Mr. Tony M. PreslarChairman & CEOGeosurveys, Inc.218 S. Leggett Dr.Abilene, TX USA 79605-1628Membership # 3840

Mr. Harold R. BeaverGeologistSaint Joseph Petroleum, Inc.7378 Cockrill Bend Blvd.Nashville, TN USA 37209Membership # 3841


Mr. Adrian FabrisPirsa101 Grenfell St.Adelaide, AUSTRALIAMembership #3878

Mr. Justin GumPirsa, Geologist4 Old Beach Rd.Brighton, SA AUSTRALIAMembership #3879

Prof. Huseyin YilmazFaculty of EngineeringDokuz Eylul UniversityDept. of Geol. EngineeringBornova/35100 Izmir, TURKEYMembership #3881

Mr. Tom MarshallConsulting Geologist68 Lawler St.Subiaco, WA AUSTRALIA 6008Membership #3884

Mr. Alexander ChristICP-MS Manager, Ultratrace20 Harwood RiseLeeming, Perth WAAUSTRALIA 6149Membership #3885

Ms. Vanessa BocksSenior GeochemistAnglo American Research LabPO Box 106Crown Mines, JohannesburgSOUTH AFRICA 2025Membership #3886

Ms. Megan LechEnvironmental Geoscientistc/ Geoscience AustraliaGPO Box 378Canberra, ACT AUSTRALIA 2601Membership #3887

Mr. Andrew SomersSales ManagerJBS Technologies/Niton Mining Tech.Suite 2, 595 Gardeners Rd.Mascot, NSW AUSTRALIA 2020Membership #3888

Ms. Heikki NiskavaaraLaboratory ManagerGeological Survey of FinlandGeoLaboratoryPO Box 77Rovaniemi, FINLAND96101Membership #3890

Mr. Greg CozensSenior Exploration GeologistPeak Gold Mines23 Kurrajong CircleCobar, NSW AUSTRALIA 2835Membership #3891

Mr. Mark MitchellDivisional GeologistDe Beers Australia Expl. Ltd.9A Fifth AvenueMt. Lawley, WAAUSTRALIA 6050Membership #3892

Pertti SaralaSenior System AnalystGeological Survey of FinlandPO Box 7796101-Rovaniemi, FINLANDMembership #3893

Ms Maite Le GleuherAustralian National UniversityDept. of Earth & Marine SciencesCanberra, ACT AUSTRALIA 0200Membership #3896

Dr D.C. “Bear” McPhailAustralian National UniversityDept. Earth & Marine SciencesCanberra, ACT AUSTRALIA 2913Membership #3897

Mr. Ivor RobertsManager-Mineral ResourcesGeological Survey of Western Aust.100 Plain StreetEast Perth, WA AUSTRALIA 6004Membership #3898

Dr Steve L. RogersChief Executive OfficerCoop. Research CentreLandscape Environ & Min. Expl.CRC Leme, PO Box 1130Bentley, WA AUSTRALIA 6102Membership #3899

Mr. Paul DunbarSenior GeologistRedport Ltd.46 Duncraig Rd.Applecross, WA AUSTRALIA 6153Membership #3900Membership # 3830

Katie SilkPublisher Account AssistantSwets Information Services160 E. Ninth Ave.Runnemede, NJ 08078Membership #3842 - Ref # 31242319

Prof. Kurt KyserQueen’s University CanadaDept. of Geol. ScienceKingston, Ontario K4L 3N6Membership #3843

Mr. Jose Lattus Sanhueza GeologistLos Peumos Oriente 6020Condominio Altod de la ArboledaPenalolen Santiago, CHILEMembership #3870

Mrs. Anna PriceProject GeologistPlacer Dome Australia223B Hancock StreetDoubleview, WA AUSTRALIA 6018Membership #3871

Ms. Joanna PearsonTechnical DirectorMaxwell GeoServicesPO Box 372South Fremantle, WAAUSTRALIA 6162Membership #3872

Mr. Peter CrowhurstSenior Projects GeologistTeck ComincoPO Box 1677West Perth, WA AUSTRALIA 6872Membership #3873

Ms. Karen KelleyU.S. Geological SurveyGeologistMS 973 PO Box 25046Denver, CO USA 80225Membership #3875

Mr. William R. MacFarlaneResearch AssociateQueen’s University96 Toronto StreetKingston, ON CANADA K7L 4A6Membership #3876

Dr. Douglas A. JonesVP, ExplorationGolden Star Resources38 Berkeley CrescentFloreat, WA AUSTRALIAMembership #3877

New Members... continued from page 20

NUMBER 129 EXPLORE


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The Association of AppliedGeochemists and SGS takepleasure in announcing thewinner of the 2004 Student PaperCompetition Award. This is forthe best paper in a refereedscientific journal by a student, onwork performed as a student,published within five years ofgraduation which addresses an aspect of explorationgeochemistry. The student must be the principal authorand nominations may be made by anyone familiar with thestudent’s work. Details of this award are on the AAGwebsite under Students.

Entries closed at the end of 2004 for the Association’sfifteenth biennial Student Paper Competition. We received three entries from three entrants from Australia andCanada. They were all of a high standard and the choicewas close. The winner is Nigel W. Brand, now a PrincipalGeochemist with ioGeochemistry, ioGlobal, in Perth,Australia. His winning paper is based on research for hisPh.D in Australia.

Nigel completed his undergraduate training at theDerbyshire College of Higher Education in 1986. Hewent on to the University of Leeds for his MSc inGeochemistry, which he completed 1988, with a thesis on

volatile species in fluid inclusions, focusing on theirrelevance to gold transport and deposition and theirpossible uses in gold exploration. He was awarded aNERC scholarship.

From 1993-1994 he worked for Western MiningCorporation in the NE Goldfields of Western Australia,evaluating Ni and Au targets with multi-elementregolith geochemistry. From 1993-1997 he took studyleave from WMC. He complete his Ph.D. at theUniversity of Western Australia on ‘Chemical andmineralogical characteristics of weathered komatiiticrocks, Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia: discriminationof nickel sulphide bearing and barren komatiites’ underthe supervision of C.R.M. Butt, N. McNaughton andD.J. Gray. He returned to WMC as a SeniorGeochemist to provide geochemical support for theWMC Ni and project generation teams, applying hisskills in regolith geochemistry, sample preparation,quality control and base-line environmental studies.From early 1998 to late 1999 he moved to WMC’sLeinster Nickel Operations. Here, he providedgeochemical support to their exploration, in particularevaluating geochemical methods to ‘see through’ coverand to develop 3D regolith exploration models, beinginvolved in discovering the Harmony Ni sulphidedeposit and the Progress shoot.

He then moved to Anglo American Exploration(Australia) as a geochemist for their Zn, Ni and Cu-Auoperations in Australia, India and the Philippines. In2004 he co-founded ioGeochemistry.

He received a $500 cash prize from SGS, a two-yearmembership of the Association of ExplorationGeochemists, together with our journal, Geochemistry,Exploration, Environment Analysis and our newsletter,Explore, a certificate of recognition and $500 towardsexpenses to attend the 22nd IGES in Perth, where theaward was presented.

His award-winning paper is entitled ‘Weathering,element distribution and geochemical dispersion at MtKeith, Western Australia: implication for nickel sulphideexploration’ which was published in 2001 in our veryown Geochemistry, Exploration, Environment AnalysisVol. 1 and was co-authored with C.R.M. Butt. Theabstract of the paper follows:-

“The komatiite-dunite-hosted Ni sulphide deposit atMKD5 (Mt Keith) has a complex regolith consisting of aresidual profile (>75 m depth), partly collapsed towardsthe top, overlain by 40 m of exotic sediments. Theweathered komatiites are composed predominantly ofdegraded serpentine, neo-formed hydrated Mg-silicates,carbonates, silica and Fe oxides. Magnesiumconcentrations decrease upwards through the lowerregolith, whereas those of Fe and Si increase, reflectingdegradation of Mg-bearing minerals. A sharp decline ofMg within the profile marks the Mg discontinuity,separating Mg saprolite from the overlying Fe saprolite.The Fe saprolite, dominated by Fe oxides and silica, haspseudo-sedimentary structures indicating partial collapse

StudentPaper Prize


of the profile. At the unconformity with the sediments,eluviation, mixing and churning have produced zones withchemical and mineralogical characteristics of the underlying,overlying and adjacent lithologies.

Nickel, Co, Mn, Cr and PGE are dominantly hosted bysecondary Fe oxides in the regolith, but above the Mg-discontinuity, Ni and Co are locally enriched by co-precipitation with Mn oxides. The oxidation potential,controlled by ferrolysis, ranges from -0.4 to +0.2 volts, andthe pH, buffered by bicarbonate ion, irrespective of thepresence of sulphides, decreases from 9.5 to 6.0 up throughthe profile. Copper is not significantly mobile under suchconditions and precipitates as inert native metal, commonlyspatially associated with Fe oxides. Separation of Ni and Cuoccurs in the upper saprolite and pedolith, because metallicCu (+Pd) is retained and residually concentrated incollapsed Fe saprolite, whereas Ni, adsorbed to goethite, isredissolved and reprecipitated below the Mg-discontinuity.

High Ni concentrations in the regolith cannot alone beused to distinguish between Ni sulphide mineralized (NiS)and barren komatiite protoliths. The strong correlation

Student Paper Prize continued from page 22 between chalcophile elements evident in mineralizedprotolith is lost with the oxidation of sulphides, and Niderived from sulphides is indistinguishable from that derivedfrom silicates. Ultramafic-derived regolith materials havingNi/Cu ratios of 7-19 and >19 may indicate the presence ofmassive and disseminated sulphides, respectively. The ratioat MKD5 is 60. These relationships may be distorted bypreferential leaching, or by the influx of either element fromwall-rocks. High concentrations of PGE, especially Pt, Pdand Ru, may also indicate mineralized protolith. However,the very low secondary mobility of PGE and Cu greatlyrestricts target size. Larger targets are given by Ni/Cr and Cu/Zn ratios which, either singly or multiplied together, can beused to identify mineralized komatiitic sequences andprovide vectors towards ore. Their value is diminished if theore and host sequence are decoupled during emplacement.”

The Association of Exploration Geochemists wouldlike to thank SGS for, once again, supporting this worthycause, which encourages student geochemists to publishtheir research in a timely manner.

I.D.M. RobertsonChairman, Student Paper Competition Committee

The last time an International GeochemicalExploration Symposium was held in Australia was inTownsville, in 1995. At that time, apart from the normalrange of paper and poster presentations, there was avigorous debate on the future of the Association and inparticular on the role and relevance of environmentalgeochemistry in an Association such as ours. Ten yearslater we were back in Australia, on the other side of thecontinent in Perth, Western Australia, and theconsequences of that debate in Townsville were there tosee for the first time. We are now the Association ofApplied Geochemists and this was not only the 22nd

International Geochemical Exploration Symposium(IGES) but also the 1st International AppliedGeochemistry Symposium (IAGS) – a practicalmanifestation of Paul Taufen’s claim in Townsville thatone man’s dispersion train is another man’s pollution trainand there is essentially no difference between the two.Given that the artificial divide between exploration andenvironmental geochemistry has now been removed Iwonder how long we should continue with this dual IGES/IAGS numbering system for future symposia – a systemwhich seems to entrench the divide between explorationand environmental geochemistry, rather than eliminate it.Would it not be better to adopt a single name that reflectsthe common ground of all applied geochemists? From apurely historical, if not sentimental, perspective therewould seem to be some logic in keeping the ‘IGES’sequence going, but with a different word for the ‘E’. Anysuggestions? In the interests of simplicity, if nothing else,I will stick with ‘IGES’ for the rest of this review.

Some facts and figures. There were approximately200 attendees in Perth of which two thirds came equallyfrom the private sector and from various research groups.

22nd IGES and 1st IAGS Perth, Western Australia, September 2005A further quarter came from service providers andindependent consultants with the balance coming largelyfrom government agencies such as state and nationalgeological surveys. This is surely one of the greatstrengths of these symposia in that they bring togethersuch diverse groups, all united by a common interest inapplied geochemistry.

Geographically, two thirds of those attending camefrom Australia with over two thirds of these coming fromthe host state of Western Australia. There was a strongCanadian contingent (15% of the total) which wasparticularly impressive given the long haul required to getto Perth, but in keeping with the tradition established inpast meetings the IGES attracted participants from allcorners of the globe: from China to Chile, Thailand toTurkey, Fiji to Finland, and many more, reflecting thesymposium theme of ‘Tropics to Tundra’.

Gwendy Hall ended the abstract for her KeynotePresentation with the suggestion that “by looking back atwhat we have achieved, perhaps the issues to be addressedon the way forward will become crystal-clear!” I sensethat that exclamation mark at the end made the statementas much a challenge as a hope, but it is an interestingexercise to look back to the Townsville IGES and toreview what has been achieved since that meeting, asreflected in the papers presented in Perth. Have wemoved on?

Regional geochemical surveys were going strong tenyears ago and they continue to be at least as populartoday: in desert regions in China, in the Yilgarn andRiverina regions in Australia, in Sudan, in BritishColumbia, and in South Africa, where the Council forGeoscience must surely be able to claim the record for the


NUMBER 129 EXPLORE

longest running regional survey. From memory it startedin 1973 and they are still going strong, and producingsome excellent results. Clearly such surveys remainuseful, and the challenges continue to be to design themin order to satisfy the needs of the end users, whoeverthose end users may be. He who pays the piper calls thetune, with the result that choice of sample densities,sample types and analytical procedures will always pose achallenge and will almost inevitably result incompromises. A regional biogeochemical survey acrosssouthern Australia could lay fair claim to marking anadvance on Townsville on the regional geochemistry front.This reflected part of a general upsurge of interest inbiological factors that may influence element mobility andperhaps allow us to see through the regolith. Encouragingresults were reported from analysis of mulga leaf litter inWestern Australia, and from analysis of eucalypts growingover both gold and lead-zinc deposits. It was also good tohear reports of laboratory experiments quantifying uptakeof gold and arsenic by eucalypts. Understanding theunderlying processes that control this uptake andsubsequent dispersion must lead to greater confidence ininterpreting our results.

The traditional biogeochemical approach, with itsfocus on sampling of higher plants, has been with us fordecades but the role of bacteria in generating diagnosticsignatures from ores and in identifying them at the surfaceis only just beginning to come into focus. Results present-ed in Perth must surely mark one of the greatest advancesover the last ten years, all the more so because the bestprofessional talk and one of the equal best student papersboth focussed on microbes. It is early days yet but this hasto be a fertile field for future research and it was partic-ularly exciting to hear reports of experimental work onthis front, and to hear of success in recognising the signa-ture of methanogenic bacteria associated with exotic typeores. Bacterial leaches could also add to our explorationarmoury, as could examination of soil organic gassignatures, many of which must have some bacterial input.

Lead isotopes featured in both Townsville and Perth,though aimed at solving very different problems, but withthe increase in analytical fire-power over the last ten yearsthe Perth IGES saw an expansion of interest in the use ofisotopes (C, H, S, and even N) to understand either origi-nal ore depositional processes or subsequent weatheringand dispersion processes. There is clearly a move awayfrom simply measuring element concentrations in one oftwo directions: either focussing more on their isotopes oron the compounds that they form with other elements.

To quote another Keynote Speaker (Rob Bowell), whoin turn was quoting someone else, “when attempting tointerpret most forms of geochemical data, three rulesshould always be applied: mineralogy, mineralogy,mineralogy (Day, 1997).” Mineralogy helps to define notonly the source of reactants but also the mechanism ofthat reaction. Support for this approach came fromstudies on mineral hosts for gold; on geochemicalvariation of specific minerals (rutile, chromite and

tourmaline); and on use of zinc phosphate minerals toconstrain the age of non-sulfide mineralisation. It wasfurther reflected in reports on the attempts to mapregolith minerals either by PIMA, on borehole samples, orby flying over it and mapping it with airbornehyperspectral techniques. On the environmental sidemineralogy can be invaluable in disentanglinganthropogenic signals from natural ones.

Partial extraction techniques also attempt to removespecific phases, although some of the continuous leachwork reported in Perth certainly suggests that we need tobe careful in interpreting the results, since extraction of aparticular phase by a particular solvent is often notinstantaneous. Many factors can influence that finalnumber and I have to admit to experiencing a touch ofconcern when reading the claim that a minimumhypergeometric probability method could be used toidentify the partial digest that yielded the most non-random results over a known mineral showing. It promptsthe question: how many random results are acceptable?

Ten years ago, in Townsville, we were talking aboutEnzyme Leach and MMI, and they are still with us today,along with many others. There is even a Pink Leach now.But do we understand any more about the processes thatgenerate these subtle anomalies? I’m sure we haveadvanced, but perhaps not as much as we would havehoped, and there is still a long way to go. There are stillmany false anomalies and barren holes. Geogas, seismicpumping, nanoparticles and electrochemical models mayall help to explain what might be happening, and perhapsthere are other mechanisms as well that could be biologi-cally driven, but until we better understand the underlyingprocesses we will continue to make mistakes. To under-stand the processes we must understand the chemistrythat underpins these leaches, and this would seem to be areal challenge where proprietary leaches are used.

Lithogeochemistry is alive and well, with new insightscoming from use of such techniques as Pearce ElementRatios. Applications in Australia, New Zealand, Chileand Canada all demonstrated the benefits of thisapproach. Data processing in general continues to evolveand to become more sophisticated, although it was goodto hear of one example where a particular technique didnot work.

On the environmental side the very valid point wasmade that ‘acid rock drainage’ is often a better term to usethan ‘acid mine drainage’, since acid drainage conditionscan often occur naturally without a mine in sight. Inlandacid sulphate soils not only pose a potential agriculturalproblem but may also be useful as a prospecting tool. Allthe more reason to try to understand them. Geochemicalbaseline studies are becoming increasingly important foragriculture, forestry, mine management and human andanimal health, while specific problems such as As and Hgjustifiably continue to attract attention. There was a widecross-section of environmental papers in Perth, butperhaps surprisingly, no more than Townsville, ten yearsago, where thirteen papers were presented in their ownenvironmental geochemistry section.


22nd IGES and 1st IAGS Perthcontinued from page 23


We continue to collect a bewildering array of sampletypes: – just about any part of a laterite is fair game; westill have supporters of good old <80 mesh and heavyminerals; kimberlitic minerals, moss, peat, tree leaves(alive, off the tree, or dead, as leaf litter), gold nuggets(cut open in a brave attempt to understand their origin),kangaroo scats, termite mounds, geogas, ultrafine clays(0.2 – 2 �m), acid sulphate soils and groundwaters. Youname it, we sample it.

Information is useless unless it is accessible andunderstandable, and geochemistry is no exception to that,so it was particularly heartening to hear of a number ofprojects involving collation and synthesis of data: forexample, an atlas of geochemical exploration models formineral deposits in the Canadian cordillera, and the littleshort of heroic development of a national geochemicaldatabase by the USGS from a range of databasesproduced over time by different administrations,philosophies, laboratories, analytical methods andpersonnel. Although not yet complete it currently storesalmost 2 million sample records and 39 million analytical

determinations. CRC LEME also released two impressiveand substantial compilations – Regolith LandscapeEvolution across Australia and Regolith Expression ofAustralian Ore Systems and the editors deservecongratulations for their patience, stamina and cajolingpowers in successfully completing them in time for theIGES.

Was anything missing from the Perth IGES? I wouldhave liked to have seen more model building / modeltesting. We still spend too much time taking manysamples, making a lot of measurements on them andhoping that if we generate enough numbers ‘something’will drop out. In addition it would have been good to hearmore on regolith dating techniques and on referencematerials, but those are personal wishes and I’m sure thatothers would have had other priorities.Overall the meeting was a great success, with an extremelyhigh standard of presentation. The students in particulardid exceptionally well. The Organising Committeemanaged to look serene at all times and deservecongratulations for a job well done.

David Garnett

Patrice de Caritat1, Megan Lech2, Subhash Jaireth2

1Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments andMineral Exploration, c/o Geoscience Australia, GPO Box 378,Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia2Geoscience Australia, GPO Box 378, Canberra, ACT 2601,Australia

IntroductionNational baseline geochemical surveys have been

conducted in most developed countries, but not yet inAustralia. In a country as large and diverse as Australia,an initial step in the development of a national low-density geochemical atlas needs to be the pilot testing ofgeochemical survey metho-dologies in representativeregions displaying contrasting topographic, drainage andclimatic conditions.

To date, we have conducted—or are conducting—pilot geochemical surveys in four regions of south-easternAustralia: the Riverina, Curnamona, Gawler andThomson regions (Figure 1). The main focus of thesurveys is to sample fine-grained transported regolith(sediments). In all but the Curnamona cases, the samplingstrategy adopted consisted of collecting sediment samplesat two depths from floodplains near the outlet of (mostlylarge) large catchments. In the Curnamona, only surfacefine-grained soil was collected mostly from depositionalplains (Caritat & Reimann 2003). Other sampling mediaare also being tried in these surveys, includinggroundwater, plant tissues, and lag. Various samplingdensities are being tested (Table 1), and modelling isplanned to test what minimum sampling density would berequired for a national coverage. The most recent survey,which is still in a preliminary stage, is in the Thomsonregion, for which only reconnaissance sampling has taken

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Figure 1. Location of sampling points for existing pilot regionalgeochemical surveys in Australia, over digital elevation model.

place so far. The most advanced pilot project is the onefrom the Riverina region, the subject of the remainder ofthis article.

Why geochemical mapping?Australia’s regolith—the blanket of soils, sediments

and weathered rocks covering fresh bedrock—is thenatural resource upon which our multimillion dollaragricultural industry is based. It also hosts much of our


22nd IGES and 1st IAGS Perthcontinued from page 24

Regional geochemical surveys: News from Australia

NUMBER 129 EXPLORE

Regional geochemical surveys:continued from page 25

Figure 2. Location of the Riverina study area and samplingsites.

Table 1. Overview of sizes and sampling densities of pilot geochemical surveys.Pilot survey Distance Distance Approximate Number of Average sampling

east-west north-south area (km2) sampling sites density (1 sample(km) (km) per X km2)

Riverina 288 427 122,976 142 866

Curnamona 305 203 61,915 199 311

Gawler 212 253 53,636 48 1117Thomson 664 316 209,824 19 (preliminary) 11,043 (preliminary)

~200 (target) 1049 (target)

precious groundwater resources and contains or coversore bodies vital for our economic development.Baseline geochemical surveys provide invaluableinformation about the natural concentrations of chemicalelements in this substrate on which we live, grow cropsand raise livestock, and from which we extract water, rawmaterials and mineral wealth.

Overseas data collated from multi-media and multi-element geochemical surveys carried out over large areasindicates that natural concentrations of chemical elementsin water, sediment, soil and plants vary spatially by up toseveral orders of magnitude due to geological, climatic,biological and other factors (Reimann & Caritat 1998).It is important to know the natural concentrations anddistributions of elements in the near-surface environmentso that:• baselines can be established against which future

changes (natural or man-made) can be quantified,• new mineral potential can be recognised and areas for

mineral exploration can be selected,• appropriate and responsible land-use policies and

decisions can be formulated,• localised contamination can be identified and better

remediated,• local salinity stress can be detected and better

understood, and• potential geohealth risks can be identified.

Low-density geochemical mappingThe concept of low-density sampling for geochemical

mapping has been around for a long time (Nichol et al.1966, Garrett & Nichol 1967, Reedman & Gould 1970)and has recently experienced renewed interest in Europe(Reimann et al. 1998, 2003), the United States

(Gustavsson et al. 2001) and China (Li & Wu 1999),for instance. Darnley et al. (1995) have suggested a frame-work for global geochemical mapping, and the samplingmedia selected include overbank sediments. Samplingdensities used for geochemical surveys elsewhere rangefrom high (~1 sample/1 km2) (e.g., Austria: Thalmann etal. 1989) to ‘ultra low’ (~1 sample/1000 to 10,000 km2)(e.g., Europe: Plant et al. 2003, Reimann et al. 2003).

Based on experience elsewhere (e.g., Reimann et al.1998), a multi-media sampling strategy cost-effectivelyyields information about sources, sinks and pathways ofchemical elements in the near-surface environment.The main sampling medium used for the Riverina surveywas overbank (or floodplain) sediments near outlets from continued on page 27

large drainage basins or catchments. As this material ismixed and accumulated during widespread erosion

related to flooding episodes,it is judged to best representthe average lithologicalinput of whole catchments(Ottesen et al. 1989).Deposited outside maindrainage channels ontofloodplains, this fine-grainedsediment has an enhancedpropensity to host adsorbed

and absorbed chemical species.We believe this sampling medium is well-suited to

Australia’s low-relief, regolith-dominated landscapes intropical to arid climates. It had not previously been usedhere for low-density geochemical mapping and needed tobe tested under local conditions. Other sampling mediatrialled in the Riverina pilot project were plant leaves andgroundwater, which will be discussed in future reports.

The Riverina regionFor the purposes of the pilot project, the Riverina

was defined as the 123,000 km2 area encompassing catch-ments that are wholly or partly contained within theRiverina Bioregion (Figure 2; see Lambert et al. 1995 forbioregion concept).

The Riverina is part of the Murray-Darling basin, asignificant agricultural, social and mineral district inAustralia, which:• covers 1.06 million km2, or 14% of the country’s total

area,• contains 45% of the Australian crop area and 43% of

the total number of farms,• is Australia’s most important agricultural region,



taken. In the laboratory, pH 1:5 (solid:water), EC 1:5,moisture content and laser particle size distribution weredetermined. Sediment splits were dried and sieved to<180 mm then analysed by X-ray fluorescence (XRF),inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS),instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and IonSpecific Electrode (ISE) (see Caritat et al. 2004).

The concentrations of 62 elements were determined,providing data for maps showing the spatial and statisticaldistributions in the TOS and BOS samples and of theTOS/BOS ratios (Caritat et al. in prep.).

Results and potential applicationsSampling at upper and lower levels at each site allows

for a more detailed understanding of the potential sourcesof chemical elements in the environment. TOS samplesare susceptible to the influence of human activity (e.g.,fertiliser use), while BOS samples from well below tillingdepth reflect more closely natural background levels.Median concentrations of most elements were higher inBOS samples, reflecting progressive mineral breakdownduring weathering and ensuing mobilisation of solubleproducts. However, median concentrations of Ag, Pb, Sb,S, Y and most rare earth elements were similar at bothdepths, while median concentrations of Br, Hf, Mn, P, Si,Zr and organic matter were higher in TOS samples.These variations reflect relative upconcentration of moreresistive minerals (quartz, zircon), precipitation ofsecondary weathering products (Mn oxyhydroxides),greater concentration of organic matter and perhapsfertilisers, and possibly evaporation of irrigation waternear the surface.

As a means of independently evaluating thegeochemical patterns obtained through this survey, wecompared the geochemical map of Th in TOS sampleswith airborne gamma-ray spectrometry patterns for thesame element (Figure 3). The patterns from these twoindependent datasets coincide well, clearly indicating that

accounting for 41% of the nation’s gross value ofagricultural production,

• is an important provider of resources such as wheat(34% of national production), cotton (96%), dairyproducts, rice and grapes, and

• is home to nearly two million people, or 11% of thetotal Australian population.

The Riverina pilot projectUndertaken collaboratively by the Cooperative

Research Centre for Landscape Environments andMineral Exploration (CRC LEME) and GeoscienceAustralia, the first pilot project to be completed is in theRiverina region, a prime agricultural district inof southernNew South Wales and northern Victoria (Figure 2). TheRiverina survey has delivered cost-effective, internallyconsistent and quality-controlled data on the inorganicchemical composition of surface and subsurface sedimentsof large catchments in the region.

The resulting geochemical maps show concentrationsof 62 elements. This multi-element geochemical data layerwill be made available to decision makers, catchmentmanagement authorities, farmers, mineral explorers andother stakeholders to guide activities and decisions in amultitude of land-use and resource managementapplications.

The Riverina survey was designed to prove the valueof geochemical mapping and to fine-tune sampling andanalytical protocols for a well-drained region with low tomodest relief and temperate to semi-arid climate.

Sampling and analysisThe Riverina was the focus of a recent airborne

geophysical data acquisition initiative led by the NewSouth Wales Department of Primary Industries, whichresulted in new digital elevation model (DEM), airbornegamma-ray and total magnetic intensity data coverages(Hallett et al. 2005).

Theoretical sample sites were located by conducting ahydrological analysis of the DEM to determine the lowestpoint in (mostly large) river catchments (see Caritat et al.2004). The catchments were derived from a combinationof DEM and drainage analysis. The sample sites werecarefully adjusted in the context of drainage and road/track coverages and field considerations such as landaccessibility, landscape position and possible anthropo-genic interferences. A total of 142 sample sites wereselected near outlets or spill points of large catchments,yielding an average sampling density of one sampleper 866 km2.Two sediment samples were taken at each site:• a top overbank sediment (TOS) sample from 0-10 cm

below the root zone, and• a bottom overbank sediment (BOS) sample from a

~10 to 15 cm interval between ~65 cm and 95 cmbelow the root zone.All samples were subjected to a detailed site

description in the field, where measurements of pH,texture and moist and dry Munsell® colours were also


Figure 3. Geochemical map of total Th (ppm) in top overbanksediment Riverina overbank sediment samples (analysed byINAA), compared to airborne gamma-ray distribution of Th(background image, courtesy of the Department of PrimaryIndustries of New South Wales and Victoria).

NUMBER 129 EXPLORE

05-112-4

144° 146°

34°

36°

0 200 km

Study area

Drainage

Sb (ppm) TOP

1.00-5.82

0.37-0.52

0.53-0.65

0.66-0.99

Figure 5. Geochemical map of total Sb (ppm) in top overbanksediment Riverina overbank sediment samples (analysed byINAA).


the geochemical patterns that we obtained from thesediments are real. Results for K and U are similarlycorroborated by the airborne gamma-ray spectrometrypatterns.

Acidity and salinityThe survey found obvious patterns of Ca and Cl

distribution in overbank sediments which haveimplications for soil pH and salinity management inagriculture. Ca in BOS samples increased from south tonorth, reflecting the increasing occurrence of carbonatematerial observed (Figure 4). Interestingly, the TOS Camap shows an east-west ridge of values going through themiddle of the study area, with lower values to both thesouth and the north.Indicators of gold mineralisation

try to use such surveys for regional orientation purposes.

Trace element enrichments and deficienciesSeveral trace elements were found to be above or

below national and international guidelines for maximumallowable concentrations for agricultural soils, soilremediation and biosolids application. Totalconcentrations of As (0.8-159.8 mg/kg), Ba (189-1263 mg/kg), Br (<1-89.5 mg/kg), Cd (<0.1-2.33 mg/kg), Cr (29-200 mg/kg), F (150-610 mg/kg), Ga (6.3-26.1 mg/kg), Sb(0.37-10.8 mg/kg), U (1.26-8.49 mg/kg) and V (31-145 mg/kg) were locally elevated above these guidelines. Co (2.96-34.2 mg/kg) and Mo (0.5-1.9 mg/kg) were found to bepotentially deficient in parts of the region.

Concentrations of Cr increase smoothly towards thesouthwest with sites in the central southern regionamongst the most elevated (Figure 6). Over half of theoverbank samples collected contain more than 50 mg/kgCr, which is the Western Australian ‘ecologicalinvestigation limit’ (WA DOE 2003). Ten samples (max =200 mg/kg) have elevated values above 100 mg/kg, whichis the maximum allowable soil contaminant concentrationfor application of biosolids to agricultural land (NSWEPA 1997). Two of these samples were from the southerncentral portion of the study area and were elevated inboth TOS and BOS samples. These catchments drain aridge of Cambrian mafic volcanics. Another possiblesource of elevated Cr is the Quaternary tholeiitic basaltslocated near the edge of the Riverina region. Whereashigh Cr levels may have human health implications(Reimann & Caritat 1998, Adriano 2001), even themaximum total value in the Riverina is unlikely to yieldexcessive available Cr based on the results of a study in


Figure 4. Geochemical map of total CaO (ppm) in bottomoverbank sediment Riverina overbank sediment samples(analysed by XRF).

As and Sb are well-known pathfinder elements forgold mineralisation. The Victorian goldfields are locatedimmediately to the south of the study area, and the As andSb distribution maps clearly show a progressive decreasefrom the southern edge of the area towards the north(Figure 5). We interpret this as a representation ofmechanical dispersion trains from the source regions tothe south and perhaps also concealed sources belowshallow basin sediments.

Sb levels range up to nearly 11 mg/kg, over 20 timesthe median world soil concentration (Reimann & Caritat1998). This confirms the anomalous nature of thesediments in the southern part of the study area andhighlights the potential for the minerals exploration indus-



Italy, which found that <0.1% of total Cr was bioavailable(Maisto et al. 2004). Cr3+ is also likely to be the dominantoxidation state and is relatively non toxic and is normallytightly bound in soil (McLaughlin et al. 2000).

Mo is an essential nutrient to many crops. The globalaverage concentration of Mo in soil ranges from 0.2-5 mg/kg (Adriano 2001); the median value in the study area was0.8 mg/kg. Levels at or below 0.5 mg/kg can beconsidered low, and those with concentrations of 0.1-0.3 mg/kg can be expected to produce Mo deficiencies(Adriano 2001). Six samples from the Riverina surveycontained Mo concentrations of 0.5 mg/kg amongst 37samples with concentrations of 0.6 mg/kg or below. LowMo concentrations occur mostly in the north and are morecommon in the TOS samples (Figure 7). Mo has lowerbioavailability in acid soils, so those in the southeast aremore likely to be prone to deficiencies. This correspondsto observations by farmers that soils in the south of thestudy area were Mo deficient and that fertiliserapplications reversed this problem (C. Simpson, pers.comm., December 2004).

Geohealth implications of the Riverina geochemicalsurvey will be discussed in further detail in an upcomingpublication (Lech & Caritat, in prep).

ConclusionsAustralia is one of few developed nations without

nationwide baseline geochemical information at thedisposal of government, industry, landholders and thegeneral public.

The results of the Riverina survey illustrate how low-density geochemical surveys convey information aboutregional patterns in soil quality, mineral prospectivity andpotential environmental and geohealth risk. Ongoinginterpretation of this data will provide information onchemical element residence and mobility in theenvironment.

Pilot projects such as the Riverina geochemical survey


Figure 6. Geochemical map of total Cr (ppm) in bottomoverbank sediment Riverina overbank sediment samples(analysed by INAA).

are contributing to establishing and fine-tuning samplingand analytical protocols that can ultimately be applied atthe national scale.

AcknowledgmentsThis collaborative study was funded by an Australian

Government Cooperative Research Centre grant to CRCLEME and by Geoscience Australia. We thank BenAckerman, Matt Lenahan, John Pyke, Peter Taylor andSaif Ullah for their assistance in the field and all propertyowners for permission to collect the samples. Alex Hickey,Marty Young and Yamin Zhou helped with samplepreparation, while Bill Papas, John Pyke, Liz Webber andAleksandra Plazinska provided assistance in thelaboratory.

ReferencesAdriano DC. 2001. Trace Elements in Terrestrial Environments—

Biogeochemistry, Bioavailability, and Risks of Metals. Secondedition, Springer-Verlag, New York, 867 pp.

Caritat P de, Jaireth S, Lech M & Pyke J. 2004. Regionalgeochemical surveys: Riverina pilot project—methodology andpreliminary results. Cooperative Research Centre for LandscapeEnvironments and Mineral Exploration, Open File Report, 160,156 pp. + CD-ROM. Available from: http://www.crcleme.org.au/

Caritat P de et al. In preparation. Geochemical atlas of the Riverinaregion.

Caritat P de, Reimann C. 2003. Baseline geochemistry of surficialregolith, Broken Hill region, Australia. In: Roach IC (Ed),Advances in Regolith (Canberra, ACT, 19-21 November 2003).CRC LEME: 53-54.

Darnley AG, Björklund A, Bølviken B, Gustavsson N, Koval PV,

Figure 7. Geochemical map of total Mo (ppm) in top overbanksediment Riverina overbank sediment samples (analysed byICP-MS).

NUMBER 129 EXPLORE

Plant JA, Steenfelt A, Tauchid M, Xuejing X, Garrett RG &Hall GEM. 1995. A Global Geochemical Database forEnvironmental and Resource Management. Recommendationsfor International Geochemical Mapping, Final Report of IGCPProject 259. UNESCO Publishing, 122 pp.

Garrett RG & Nichol I. 1967. Regional geochemicalreconnaissance in eastern Sierra Leone. Transactions of theInstitution of Mining and Metallurgy, B76:97-112.

Gustavsson N, Bølviken B, Smith DB & Severson RC. 2001.Geochemical landscapes of the conterminous United States—new map presentations for 22 elements. U.S. Geological SurveyProfessional Paper 1648, 38 pp.

Hallett M, Vassallo J, Glen R & Webster S. 2005. Murray-Riverinaregion: An interpretation of bedrock Palaeozoic geology basedon geophysical data. Quarterly Notes, Geological Survey of NewSouth Wales, April 2005, 118, 16 pp.

Lambert JA, Elix JK, Chenowith A & Cole S. 1995. Bioregionalplanning for biodiversity conservation. Approaches toBioregional Planning, Part 2. Background Papers to theConference, 30 October - 1 November 1995, Melbourne.Available from: http://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/publications/series/paper10/pubs/elix.pdf

Lech ME & Caritat P de. In preparation. Baseline geochemicalsurvey of the Riverina region of New South Wales and Victoria,Australia: Geohealth implications.

Li J & Wu G (Chief Compilers). 1999. Atlas of the EcologicalEnvironmental Geochemistry of China. Geological PublishingHouse, Beijing, China, 209 pp.

Maisto G, Alfani A, Baldantoni D, De Marco A & Virzo De SantoA. 2004. Trace metals in the soil and in Quercus ilex L. leaves atanthropic and remote sites of the Campania Region of Italy.Geoderma, 122:269-279.

McLaughlin MJ, Hamon RE, McLaren G, Speir TW & RogersSL. 2000. Review: A bioavailability-based rationale forcontrolling metal and metalloid contamination of agriculturalland in Australia and New Zealand. Australian Journal of SoilResearch, 38:1037-1086.

Nichol I, Garrett RG & Webb JS. 1966. Studies in regionalgeochemistry. Transactions of the Institute of Mining andMetallurgy, B75:106-107.

NSW EPA. 1997. Environmental Management Guidelines—Useand Disposal of Biosolids Products. New South WalesEnvironment Protection Agency (NSW EPA), 107 pp.

Ottesen RT, Bogen J, Bølviken B & Volden T. 1989. Overbanksediment: a representative sample medium for regionalgeochemical sampling. Journal of Geochemical Exploration,32:257-277.

Plant JA, Reeder S, Salminen R, Smith DB, Tarvainen T, De VivoB & Petterson MG. 2003. The distribution of uranium overEurope: geological and environmental significance. AppliedEarth Science, 112:221-238.

Reedman AJ & Gould D. 1970. Low sample-density streamsediment surveys in geochemical prospecting: an example fromnortheast Uganda. Transactions of the Institution of Mining andMetallurgy, B79:246.

Reimann C & Caritat P de. 1998. Chemical Elements in theEnvironment—Factsheets for the Geochemist andEnvironmental Scientist. ISBN 3-540-63670-6. Springer-Verlag,Berlin, Germany, 398 pp.

Reimann C, Äyräs M, Chekushin V, Bogatyrev I, Boyd R, CaritatP de, Dutter R, Finne TE, Halleraker JH, Jæger Ø, KashulinaG, Lehto O, Niskavaara H, Pavlov V, Räisänen ML, Strand T &Volden T. 1998. Environmental Geochemical Atlas of the CentralBarents Region. ISBN 82-7385-176-1. NGU-GTK-CKE Special

Publication, Geological Survey of Norway, Trondheim, Norway,745 pp.

Reimann C, Siewers U, Tarvainen T, Bityukova L, Eriksson J,Gilucis A, Gregorauskiene V, Lukashev VK, Matinian NN &Pasieczna A. 2003. Agricultural Soils in Northern Europe: AGeochemical Atlas. Geologisches Jahrbuch Sonderhefte, ReiheD, Heft SD5, 279 pp.

Thalmann F, Schermann O, Schroll E & Hausberger G. 1989.Geochemischer Atlas der Republik Österreich (Textteil andkartenteil). Geologische Bundesanstalt, Rasumofskygasse 23,A-1031 Wien, Österreich.

Velleman PF & Hoaglin DC. 1981. Applications, Basics andComputing of Exploratory Data Analysis. Duxbury Press,Boston, Mass, USA.

WA DOE. 2003. Western Australian Department of theEnvironment Assessment Levels for Soil, Sediment and Water—Draft for Public Comment. In: Contaminated Sites ManagementSeries, 31 pp. Available at: http://portal.environment.wa.gov.au/pls /portal /docs /PAGE/DOE_ADMIN/GUIDELINE_REPOSITORY/ASSESSMENT LEVELS FOR SOIL%2CSEDIMENT AND WATER.PDF

Several map types are shown here to illustrate variouspresentation styles, each with advantages anddrawbacks. The simplest and most factual maps are thedot-maps (Figures 3, 6), where real concentrations areshown at the exact points where they were obtained.

For easy interpretation, exploratory data analysis (EDA)principles instruct us that boxplot classification withsymbology as used here works best (e.g., Velleman &Hoaglin 1981). The resulting maps represent animprovement in the interpretation capability overgrowing dots maps (Figure 5).

The catchment or ‘mosaic’ maps (Figure 4) assign thevalue obtained at the bottom of each catchment to theentire catchment. This is based on the assumption thatthe overbank sediments analysed are the best possiblereflection of the average geochemical composition ofnear-surface materials in the catchment. Although thisassumption is fundamentally valid and faithful togeological understanding, the resulting maps aresomewhat difficult to read at first.

Inverse-distance weighted maps (Figure 7) interpolateconcentrations to fill in the gaps between real samples(the search radius used here is 50 km). Thus, they arebased on mathematical models that may or may notmatch how the geochemical composition of sedimentsreally varies around known points (i.e. no account istaken of lithology, erosion and transport processes,discontinuities etc.).

These maps, when smooth and “well behaved” are veryeasy to read and convey their message efficiently, butthey reflect a significant, and perhaps unacceptably high,degree interpolation for these low-density surveys.



Newsletter No. 129 DECEMBER 2005

Editor: Chris Benn ([email protected])

Associate Editor:Selwyn Benn

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TEL: (613) 828-0199 FAX: (613) 828-9288, e-mail:[email protected]

Robert J. Bowell, Vice PresidentSRK ConsultingWindsor Court, 1 Windsor PlaceCardiff, Wales CF10 3BXTEL: 442920348150FAX: 442920348199email: [email protected]

THE ASSOCIATION OFAPPLIED GEOCHEMISTS

P.O. Box 26099, 72 Robertson Road, Nepean,Ontario K2H 9R0 CANADA • Telephone (613) 828-0199

www.appliedgeochemists.org

OFFICERSJanuary - December 2005

Australian Geoscience CouncilRepresentativeDavid Garnett

Awards and Medals CommitteeChair: William CokerRobert G. GarrettGünter MatheisBarry W. Smee

Bibliography CommitteeL. Graham Closs, ChairRobert G. GarrettRichard K. GlanzmanEric C. GrunskyPeter J. Rogers

Distinguished Lecturer CommitteeJeffrey Jaacks, Chair

Election OfficialSherman Marsh

EXPLOREChris Benn, Editoremail: [email protected] Bowell, Assist. EditorBarry Smee, Assist. EditorDavid Seneshen, Bus. Manager

Geochemistry: Exploration,Environment, AnalysisGwendy E.M. Hall, Editor-in-Chiefe-mail: [email protected]

Admissions CommitteeNigel Radford, ChairPaul MorrisCliff Stanley

COMMITTEES

New Membership CommitteeRobert Jackson, Chair

Publicity CommitteeM. Beth McClenaghan, ChairSherman P. MarshJ. Stevens ZukerR. Steve Friberg

Regional Councillor CoordinatorRobert Bowell

Short Course CommitteeColin E. Dunn, Co-ChairVlad Sopuck, Co-Chair

Student Paper CompetitionChair: VacantJ.B. de SmethPaul MorrisOwen Lavin

Symposium CommitteePaul Morris, Co-ChairNigel Radford, Co-ChairEion CameronMario DesiletsPhilippe FreyssinetGwendy HallVirginia McLemoreBarry W. SmeeGraham F. Taylor

Web Site CommitteeRobert Eppinger, ChairWebmaster: Andrew Ransom

COUNCILORSCouncilor Emeritus

Sherman Marsh

BrazilGermano Melo Jr.

ChileBrian Townley

ChinaXueqiu Wang

2005-2006Robert EppingerDavid SeneshenPhil BakerAllan KellyDavid Cohen

2004-2005Chris BennWilliam B. CokerJeffrey JaacksRobert JacksonPaul Morris

EuropeJ. B. De Smeth

Northern CountriesVacant

Southeast AsiaIftikhar A. Malik

Southern AfricaCharles Okujeni

UK and Republicof IrelandDeirdre M. A. Flight

Stephen CookJorge LoredoOlle Selinus

NUMBER 129 EXPLORE

PR SRT STD.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDDENVER, CO

PERMIT NO. 3550

Newsletter for The Association of Applied GeochemistsP.O. Box 150922, Lakewood, CO, 80215-0922, USA

Please send changes of address to:Association of Applied Geochemists

P.O. Box 26099, 72 Robertson Road, Nepean, Ontario, K2H 9R0, Canada · TEL: (613) 828-0199 FAX: (613) 828-9288e-mail: [email protected] • http://www.appliedgeochemists.org

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