UWA Student Chapter of the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) & Society for Geology Applied for Mineral Deposits (SGA)

This is the official website of the UWA Student Chapter of the Society of Economic Geologists, providing information on upcoming talks, social events, field trips and general proceedings.

Objectives of the Student Chapter

The common objectives of the Student Chapter and the Society of Economic Geologists are as follows:

• To advance the science of geology through the scientific investigation of mineral deposits and mineral resources and the application thereof to minerals exploration, mineral resource appraisal, mining, and mineral extraction endeavours;
• To disseminate basic and applied scientific information arising from investigations of mineral deposits and mineral resources through Society publications, meetings, conferences, symposia, field trips, short courses, workshops, and lecture series; and
• To advance the status of the profession of economic geology and maintain a high professional and ethical standard among Society members.

Current Committee Members

President: Ben Hames, hamesb01@student.uwa.edu.au

Vice-President: David Mole,  moled01@student.uwa.edu.au

Secretary: Kim Webb, webbk01@student.uwa.edu.au

Treasurer: Alex Clarke-Hale, clarka03@student.uwa.edu.au

Advisors

The Student Chapter's Advisors are: Professor Cam McCuaig, Professor Steffen Hagemann & Dr Marco Fiorentini.

Social Functions

The Student Chapter seeks to provide a forum in which students and members from industry and other institutions interact on an informal level. The Student Chapter social functions are an alternative setting for individuals to discuss ideas and topics which can not easily be covered in the formal environment of seminars or lectures. The Chapter also has the intention of providing a comfortable arena for students to meet peers from outside of the university.

Special Seminars & Discussion Groups

The Student Chapter regularly organises seminars by industry & academic experts on mineral industry related topics. Journal articles on current research and interest topics are also reviewed and discussed by the group to provide an opportunity to broaden students understanding in fields relating to economic geology, that are not necessarily encountered in individual research projects.

Student Chapter Field Trips

The Student Chapter seeks to continue hosting informative field trips to world-class mining & geology districts. In 2008, the chapter organised a highly successful trip through North Island New Zealand.

In November 2009 the chapter plans to send 8 to 10 students to South Australia to visit several world-class mineral deposits including Prominant Hill and Olympic Dam, as well as the Flinders Ranges and Coober Pedy opal fields.

The objectives of the field trips are to provide a practical, demonstrative environment that allows aspects of deposit genesis and district evolution to be examined.

We invite student members from other universities around Western Australia in addition to seeking to run joint field trips with other Student Chapters around Australia & internationally.

Student Chapter Members

Ben Hames, David Mole, Kim Webb, Alex Clark-Hale, Ben Dingli, Geoff Heggie, Haylee Cuzens, Lachlan Nally, Dan Sully, Richard O'Brien, Stephanie Donaldson, Des Lascelles.

Current Industry Sponsors

Rio Tinto Iron Ore, AngloGold Ashanti, BHP Billiton Nickel West, Newmont Asia Pacific, Anglo American Exploration, Cryptodome, Teck Australia, Emmerson Resources, Southern Geoscience Consultants, and the Society of Economic Geologists.

Recent Events

On 2nd June 2009 a "Spectral Geology" workshop outlining the emerging field of spectral imaging applied to geology. After an introduction by Carsten Laukamp (CET), Rob Hewson (CSIRO) discussed whether "spectral geology is complementary to current geophysics". Wally Witt (CET) outlined a case study of spectral imaging used at the Pataz Goldfields, Peru. Erick Ramanaidou (CSIRO) gave an introduction to the application of spectral imaging in core logging (HyLogger), and Tom Cudahy (CSIRO) outlined the concept of 3D spectral geology applied to mineral systems and exploration targeting.

On 11th May 2009 a Uranium workshop presented by Dr Franco Pirajno (GSWA) and Dr Louise Fisher (CSIRO E&M) outlining Uranium deposit genesis and geochemistry. The workshop was complemented by some of Dr Pirajno's "hot" samples.

On 14th April 2009 a special lecture delivered by Michel Cuney from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) France on "The extreme diversity of uranium genetic models".

On 3rd November 2008 an exploration workshop with Dr Craig Hart (CET) talking about orogenic and intrusion related gold, Dr Steve Garwin (Geoinformatics Exploration) on porphyry Cu-Au, and Dr Marco Fiorentini (CET) on Komatiite hosted Ni-PGE's.

Economic Geology Presentations

The UWA Student Chapter of the Society of Economic Geologists in conjunction with the Centre for Global Metallogeny host regular presentations relating to economic geology. These presentations are designed with a focus on current issues in the field of economic geology and are often structured to address a particular theme or controversy. Guest speakers are frequently invited to present on contemporary ideas in a range of fields.

Previous Talks

• Goldcorp Challenge 2000 winning entries - Dr. Nick Archibald (Fractal Graphics) and Dr. Cam McCuaig (SRK Consulting)
• Platinum mineralisation and a specific case study of the Sudbury impact structure - Dr Catherine Farrow (INCO: supported by Outokumpu Mining Australia).
• Supergiants of the Laverton Belt - Western Australia, turning exploration success into an exploration future - Dr Phil Newton (AngloGold) and Kell Nielson.
• Thunderbox gold discovery, Leinster district - Marcus Harris (Dalrymple Resources NL) & Mark Bennett (LionOre Group).
• Orogenic Gold Deposits of Alaska - Dr. Richard Goldfarb (USGS).
• A Review of the VHMS mineral system - David Huston (AGSO).
• Intrusion-related mineral deposits: Tectonics, magmas and fluids - John F.H. Thompson (Teck Corporation).
• Structural controls on fluid flow and sediment-hosted ore genesis in the McArthur Basin, Northern Territory - Prof. Grant Garvin (John Hopkins University).
• The Atacama project and the La Escondida discovery - David Lowell (Lowell Mineral Exploration).

Previous workshops

• Pearce element ratios and Lithogeochemistry- Assoc. Prof. Clifford Stanley (Acadia University, Nova Scotia).
• Stream Sediment Geochemistry- Dr Kay Flethcer (University of British Columbia, Canada).