Newsletter #5, November 2001
The McGill University Student Chapter of the SEG continued to thrive during the 2000-2001 year. Fourteen students, one professor and two staff were registered as members, and generous corporate donations enabled the Chapter to organize subsidized activities for its members. The new officers elected for the 2001-2002 year are: Andrew Stewart (President), Jasmin Raymond (Vice-President), Katherine Ault (Secretary), and Oliver Schatz (Treasurer).
Activities during the last session included a three-day field trip to Sudbury, with a surface transect of the Sudbury Basin. Sixteen members attended this trip to one of the world’s foremost nickel-producing regions. In February 2001, six Chapter members spent two weeks in New Mexico and eastern Arizona on the Mineral Deposits Field Trip. In March, the Chapter subsidized members who attended the PDAC meeting in Toronto. Three speakers were invited during the academic year. Dr. Bruce Hart, the recently hired sedimentologist at McGill, Dr. C. Jay Hodgson of Barrick Gold Corporation, and Dr. Constantino Mpodozis, the SEG International Exchange Tour Lecturer. This fall, five Chapter members attended the annual gold panning trip to the Eastern Townships. Everyone happily returned to Montreal with some gold as a reward for a hard day of panning.
This year's planned activities include the fall gold panning trip and a 5-6 day trip to Timmins, Val d’Or and Sudbury. Several speakers have been invited to give lectures, including Bruce Taylor (GSC-Ottawa), McGill graduate Katherine Smuk (Falconbrige Exploration) and Benoit Dubé (GSC-Québec).
SEG Seminar Series
The Student Chapter at McGill University sponsored four great lectures this year. Dr. Bruce Hart, of McGill, discussed the petroleum industry and job opportunities therein. Dr. Jay Hodgson of Barrick Gold Corporation presented talks on Archean lode gold deposits and the future of the mining industry. Finally, Dr. Constantino Mpodozis (SEG International Exchange Tour Lecturer) presented a talk on the Maricunga and El Indio mineral belts, and the thickened arc model for Andean metallogeny.
"The Oil Patch: Multidisciplinary Integration in a High-Tech
Environment"
Dr. Bruce Hart provided us with the first lecture of the year, which focused on the rewards of working in the petroleum industry and the use of new technologies. Bruce started off by outlining the various benefits of working in the oil patch and then explained the use of stratigraphy and structure, digital technology and 3-D seismic based applications. Using examples of his own work in New Mexico as well as that of others, he established the various advantages of digital technology and how 3-D seismic can be used to define both stratigraphy and structure within a basin in addition to finding accumulations of oil and gas. Bruce wrapped up his talk by pointing out that while technology is very useful, it is no replacement for human judgement.
Geology and Exploration of Precambrian Gold Deposits
In the first talk of the New Year, Dr. C. J. Hodgson of Barrick Gold Corporation discussed the temporal and spatial distribution of gold deposits in the Precambrian. The first part of the lecture focused on the variety of gold deposit types, such as sedimentary-dominated greenstone belts (Lupin and Giant Mine, NWT), volcanic greenstone belts (Val d’Or, Timmins, Hemlo), volcanic-hosted (Horne mine), and BIF-hosted (Homestake) which formed during the Archean. Dr. Hodgson gave a concise description of a genetic model for these deposits, and then integrated this with a discussion of exploration methodology. This methodology includes area selection (based on regional and local geology, geochemistry and geophysics), structural controls (e.g., fluid conduits and traps), and alteration.
Where is the Mineral Resource Industry Heading in the 21st Century: Implications for Canadian Geologists
Dr. Hodgson gave a second lecture in which he painted a bleak picture for the future of the mining industry in Canada. The talk focused on such factors as the price of metals, exploration and production costs, size of projects, and how these tie factors into profits and the future of mining in Canada. The key factor presented was that despite increased mineral production due to technological advances in exploration, mining and metallurgy, the price of metals has decreased – we are victims of our own success! He then touched upon employment trends, the need for a better links between industry and academia, and the role Canada will play in the global industry.
Late Cenozoic Mineralization and Crustal Evolution in a Thickening Arc: The Maricunga and El Indio Mineral Belts in Northern Chile
In March, we hosted the last talk for the year, Dr. C. Mpodozis of SNGM (Chilean Geological Survey) in Santiago. Dr. Mpodozis visited the chapter in his capacity as the SEG international distinguished lecturer. The talk started with an overview of the volcanic evolution of the Andes, with particular reference to northern Chile, before discussing the timing of gold and copper mineralization in the mineral-rich El Teniente, Maricunga and El Indio belts. Using a combination of element ratio diagrams and geochronology, he was able to demonstrate convincingly how mineralization was intimately related to the formation of an amphibole-rich mantle wedge. An interesting exploration technique was also drawn to the audience’s attention in which Sm/Yb ratios were used to predict whether the volcanic terrane would be fertile or barren with respect to Cu-Au deposits.
Sudbury Fieldtrip
We started our Sudbury trip with a visit to Inco's Copper Cliff South nickel mine and the Clarabelle mill and smelter. Retired geologist Elwood Wohlberg was kind enough to take us on our underground tour where we viewed, among other things, the Footwall Breccia and ore-hosting diorite dykes. Alan Bouchard and Geoff Osborne provided us with tours of the Clarabelle mill and smelter.
Professor Don Francis (McGill University) and Katherine Smuk of Falconbridge Exploration (and McGill graduate) led a surface transect of the Sudbury Basin on our final day. The transect began at the 2711 Ma Levack gneiss, followed by stops at the Footwall Breccia, Sudbury Sublayer, norites and quartz-rich gabbros, granophyre and Onaping Formation. We then passed over the central portion of the basin, viewing the Onwatin and Chelmsford formations. Samples of massive chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and pentlandite were collected at the Worthington Offset, considered to be the feeder zone to the Sudbury Sublayer, then it was off to the see shatter cones, slag heaps, the smelter and the requisite stop at the infamous Big Nickel. Our final stop before heading back to Montréal was to view large kyanite, sillimanite and garnet porphyroblasts in an outcrop of Huronian Group metasediments.
Fieldtrip Participants: From left to right, starting at top: M. Mlynarczyk, D. Fox, D. Dolejs, L-M. Bowes-Lyon, C. Wright, J. Resnick, G. Panagiotidis, O.Grondin Bottom: Z. Plandowski, K. Ault, S. Archibald, A. Friis, Prof. D. Francis, Shake, K. Smuk. New Mexico - eastern Arizona Fieldtrip
The McGill University Student Chapter of the SEG held a two-week fieldtrip to New Mexico and eastern Arizona from February 14th to 28th, 2001. Six McGill Chapter members were joined by two New Mexico Tech (NMT) students and a geologist from the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources (NMBMMR). The objective of the trip was for participants to experience the geology of the southwest USA and familiarize themselves with a variety of economically significant ore deposit types.
The trip began with stops at the McCartys pahoehoe lava flow, the Grants uranium mining museum, and the Bisti Badlands. Our first mine visit was to the San Juan coal mine, located in the hydrocarbon-rich San Juan basin. Geologist Steve Korte explained the depositional model of the basin, and mine engineer Alister Horne (a McGill graduate) discussed techniques involved in both strip and underground coal mining.
After a mandatory visit to Shiprock, the group visited Phelps Dodge’s Morenci copper-porphyry, guided by chief geologist Ralph Stegen who gave a presentation outlining the geology of the mine, and the importance of supergene enrichment. The mine tour included stops at two operating pits, leach pads, and stacks of shiny new copper anodes.
Morenci seen from the reactivated Garfield Pit. Our next stop was the Chino Cu-Zn skarn. The tour was enthusiastically given by mine geologist Bob North, and included stops to observe each host rock type and alteration style. Bob also took the group to outcrops outside the mine in order to examine unaltered host lithologies. We also explored the waste piles of the Empire mine, a Pb-Zn skarn, for samples of garnet and epidote. The Chapter is grateful to Bob for providing an excellent sample suite from the mine, and a large piece of dendritic native copper.
Blast at the Chino mine. NMBMMR geologist Virginia McLemore and NMT graduate student Kelly Donahue joined the group to lead a 2-day tour of the Steeple Rock Au-Ag epithermal district (including the family-run Carlyle mine), the Victorio Mo-porphyry and W-Be skarn district, the Lake Valley silver-manganese district, and the Hillsboro Copper Flat mine (all past producers). Josh Crook, senior undergraduate at NMT, led a tour of the Orogrande gold district, where gem-quality turquoise can be found.
The next mine visit was to the Mississippi potash mine with engineer Tom McGuire, where participants were able to get a feel (and taste) for the different salts and witness the unusual mining techniques. Tom also presented fortunate chapter members with beautiful samples of blue halite. After a visit to the New Mexico Mineral Museum in Socorro and a tour of the Waldo mine (by Karl Frisch, Glen Jones and Emmett), a former Zn-Pb (skarn) mine donated to NMT as a research facility, the group headed back to Albuquerque and then Montreal. Field trip participants were S. Archibald, K. Ault, D. Dolejs, O. Grondin, G. Panagiotidis and G. Poirier.
SEG fieldtrip participants at the New Mexico Tech operated Waldo Mine. Gold Panning at Mining Brook, Eastern Townships
The annual gold panning trip to Mining Brook was organised for October 14th. This famous gold panning location is situated between La Patrie and Chartierville in the Eastern Townships of Québec, close to Lac Mégantic and the Canada-US border. The success of last year’s panning was all that was needed to convince five Chapter members that Mining Brook was the place to pan. The party included Sandy Archibald, Olivier Grondin, Doris Fox, Andrew Stewart and David Dolejs.
Sandy Archibald, whose experience of panning for gold in Scotland has made him the “veteran”, again provided a lesson outlining the basics of panning and finer techniques such as the “sticky finger flake transferral”. Sandy’s panning technique must have worked (or the stream was particularly rich) because everyone found some colours.
This was the third time the McGill Student Chapter of the SEG conducted a gold panning trip. Everyone had a great time panning on a gorgeous autumn day and the cool weather reduced the chances of heat-stroke, which took out two panners two years ago at the Gilbert River!
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Happy gold panners checking out their booty.
Left-to-right: Olivier Grondin, Doris Fox, Sandy Archibald and David Dolejs.
The McGill Chapter of the SEG would like to thank the following corporate members for sponsorship during 2000-2001:
Agnico-Eagle
Ashton Mining of Canada
Barrick Gold Corporation
Falconbridge Limited
Hudson Bay Exploration and Development Co.
INCO
Kinross Gold Corporation
Rio Algom
Virginia Gold Mines
Interested in becoming a sponsor?
Should your company wish to sponsor our student chapter, then as a thank you, we shall be pleased to advertise your logo on our website and in our future promotional efforts. For more information, please contact us.