Basements Studies for Oil & Gas | Geologists of Africa | NGSA
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March 12, 2013
Mini-Symposium on Laterites or Laterwrongs: Making the Pieces Fit
On Tuesday March 26, 2013 the TGDG will host a selection of speakers for a mini-symposium at Hart House on ‘Laterites or Laterwrongs: Making the Pieces Fit’. Speakers include Ravi Anand (CSIRO), Peter Winterbourne (Vale), and Ron Schonewille (Xstrata)...
March 11, 2013
CET Seminar Series starts March 15 with presentation on The Past and Future of Nickel Discovery
Hailing from industry, government and academia, high profile Australian and internationally-based researchers will join the CET fortnightly to share their experience on a wide variety of geoscience topics.These seminars are FREE and all interested Geologists are welcome to attend...
February 25, 2013
Is regulation robbing exploration properties of their worth?You can’t get chickens if you don’t allow the eggs to develop. Joe Hinzer, president of geological consulting firm Watts, Griffiths and McOuat (WGM), uses this analogy to illustrate how many early-stage exploration projects are being stifled by current mineral valuation regulations before they have a shot at becoming mines...
February 04, 2013
Roundup 2013: HDI's Thiessen sees 'mining renaissance'
It has been a busy 24 hours as the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia (AME BC) kicked off its Mineral Exploration Roundup 2013...
January 29, 2013
Where do I meet the geologists of Africa?Africa is more than 20 per cent of the world’s land area, is home to 15 per cent of human population but still earns its label as the Dark Continent through generating only 2 per cent of the world’s electricity. Where can you find the geologists exploring this sleeping giant with its inevitable future in the resources sector?
January 28, 2013
CMIC Footprints project sets sights on large ore-forming systems
As exploration programs focus on remote and concealed targets, the ability to recognize large ore-forming systems – from the most distal margins to high-grade cores – becomes increasingly important. Efforts are therefore under way to generate sophisticated “footprint” or “signature” models of high-value deposits.
December 2, 2012
Greenfields come to Perth for Greenland Day
The December 4th Greenland Day, taking place in Perth, will feature industry and geoscience experts from across the globe, discussing Greenland’s burgeoning exploration opportunities and recent research advances...
November 1, 2012
On Nov 8, Discover the Future of Exploration
Some of the sector's leading minds will be looking into their crystal balls on November 8th, trying to summon a picture of what the future might hold for exploration and mining in Canada...
September 11, 2012
Petrobras Starts Output at Baleia Azul Presalt Field
Brazilian state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras, said Tuesday that it had started oil production at the Baleia Azul presalt field in the offshore Campos Basin...
September 11, 2012
Is Gold Regaining its Glitter?
Barrick Gold CEO Jamie Sokalsky speaks with Carl Quintanilla on CNBC about Barrick's strategy to drive shareholder value...
September 10, 2012
The Long Term Tie Between Energy Supply, Population, and the Economy
The tie between energy supply, population, and the economy goes back to the hunter-gatherer period...
July 12, 2012
Exploration needed to kickstart next mining boom
A massive two thirds of Western Australia remains unexplored for minerals and geologists say the territory presents huge potential...
July 12, 2012
Teams Finding New Ways to Shale Success
Shale and other unconventional resources are being called the biggest game changer in a generation - and as land and other costs escalate, the industry continues to apply lessons gleaned from the early successes...
July 11, 2012
How EM geophysics can help feasibility studies
In this exclusive interview with Professor David Thiel, Director at the Centre for Wireless Monitoring and Applications at Griffith University, he discusses how electromagnetic geophysics can help those who are conducting a feasibility study and opens up on the real cost benefits of this technology...
July 11, 2012
Mining security - opening up Latin America
Improved security has started to open up new areas for mineral exploration in Latin America....
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March 8, 2013 expertise
Matching an exploration target with a geophysical technique can be tricky for an explorer, partly because there are so many options available and partly because there can be significant differences in rock properties even among the same deposit types.
March 8, 2013 technology
An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle-towed magnetometer proves itself in rough weather. The technique could reduce costs and time to complete seabed surveys, with improved accuracies.
March 8, 2013 technology
The growing ease with which geophysical data are collected, inverted and visualized in three dimensions stands to change the way mining companies conduct their exploration programs.
March 8, 2013 applied
Company borne out of an academic collaboration benefits both students and industry doing offshore UXO surveys in the North and Baltic Seas.
March 8, 2013 applied
The extensive Karoo Basin of South Africa may hold vast reserves of shale gas. A tectonic modeling project underway will help determine their production viability.
March 8, 2013 profiles
Looking for new, economic mineral deposits and coming up with new ideas that can be tested and explored by industry or prospectors is a main component of Brian Atkinson's role as a regional resident geologist with the Ontario Geological Survey.
March 8, 2013 library
Fundamentals of Gravity Exploration, authored by Thomas R. LaFehr and Misac N. Nabighian, is a new publication now available from the SEG Book Mart. The book covers a full range of gravity-exploration topics, including first principles, field instrumentation and operations, rock densities and density contrasts, data reduction, methods of interpretation, and geologic examples. The subject matter includes inversion and an appendix on the Fourier transform.
March 7, 2013 technology
Geosoft presented new workflows for geological subsurface modelling at PDAC 2013 in Toronto, adding to its integrated platform for earth exploration. The workflows include 3D wireframing and interpretation tools that make the modelling of subsurface geology faster and more effective for mineral explorers.
February 28, 2013 discovery
Smaller, higher-grade deposits are likely to become the focus of future gold exploration while base metal exploration will continue to tap into established mining camps with the help of new technologies.
February 26, 2013 technology
Marine surveyors will soon be able to use new UXO Marine software to process data collected with TVG (Transverse Gradient) and other fixed-array systems with greater accuracy, and less risk of re-acquiring data and missing UXO targets.
January 28, 2013 library
Minalliance, a Montreal-based organization created jointly by the Québec Mineral Exploration Association and the Québec Mining Association, has published an ebook listing 100 technological improvements in exploration and mining. Inversion algorithms rated as the #1 exploration innovation. Other exploration innovations included: ICP-MS analyses, gas geochemistry and airborne gravimetry.
January 24, 2013 applied
Often not given its due in oil and gas geophysics, knowledge of basement geology can be critical to exploiting reservoirs including the unconventional. When it comes to undertanding basement geology, gravity and magnetics can be just as important as seismic methods.
November 1, 2012 profiles
Although there is more overlap between the theoretical and applied aspects of economic geology than is true for most disciplines, geology professors are not usually recognized for their mineral discoveries.
November 1, 2012 expertise
Given how the rules have evolved since their introduction more than decade ago (the last adjustment was in June 2011), it's not surprising that there remains some confusion around NI 43-101 compliant disclosure of exploration results. In this post, Virginia reviews some of the main infractions, and provides pointers on things to watch for.
September 11, 2012 expertise
What if you could generate a map that identified not only exploration targets, but also the likelihood of those targets becoming economic deposits? The authors of the cover article for July's edition of SEG Newsletter say this kind of "radical approach" to exploration is both possible and necessary.

July 23, 2012 market
Michael Chender, CEO, Metals Economics Group reports: MEG's Pipeline Activity Index (PAI) drifted downward in May-June, with the squeeze on financings and a fall in industry equity valuations to its lowest level in two years offset by a continuing high level of new junior resource announcements; the legacy of strong exploration in the past several years.

July 19, 2012 market
Several juniors have jumped on the graphite and vanadium bandwagon, hoping that new sources of demand for these strategic minerals, mostly from battery applications, will make their exploration projects viable.

July 19, 2012 discovery
At a time when most junior explorers are struggling to attract market attention, Toronto-based Energizer Resources enjoyed a 27% share price gain for the first half of June on the strength of its growing graphite-vanadium resource in Madagascar.

July 20, 2012 expertise
Aiming to be the greenest mine in America, American Vanadium Corp. is evaluating the use of integrated solar and wind electric power backed by a vanadium flow battery (VFB) to run its entire operation with power to spare.

July 20, 2012 technology
The recent rush to find graphite and vanadium deposits to satisfy potential demand in green energy applications is reigniting airborne electromagnetic (EM) methods as highly effective exploration tools.

June 5, 2012 applied
Application of aeromagnetic structural analysis techniques for greenfields gold exploration are proven in the field. Experimental results demonstrate there is a high correlation between known mineralization and the regions of structural complexity that are generated by the proposed method.

June 5, 2012 library
There was no path to guide field mapper Mary Albanese through the Alaskan wilderness in the 1980's. Only brush, trees, and rocks – an unchartered, seemingly endless stretch of rocks. Her memoir Midnight Sun, Arctic Moon: Mapping the Wild Heart of Alaska is the story of Albanese's life and journey as an arctic geological explorer.

June 4, 2012 applied
In a rush to drill based on chasing anomalies, explorers may overlook the structural geology and miss the best drill spots.

June 4, 2012 applied
Almost 40 years after one of America's most famous mass murders, a second weapon is detected and recovered with marine geophysics.

June 4, 2012 Expertise
As the planet's easy-to-find petroleum resources mature, deep offshore exploration and production lead the trend to the more difficult and challenging regions. Eni is one of a handful of leaders.

June 4, 2012 Expertise
Greenfields-related research conducted by the Centre for Exploration Targeting is aiding industry efforts to look deeper. Innovation holds the key to bringing down the cost of making new, deeper, discoveries and securing future resource supplies.

June 4, 2012 Discovery
Knowing when to drill and when to walk away is essential in greenfields exploration. Explorers weigh in on market realities impeding the search for greenfields , and what it will take to meet the demand for quality finds.

June 4, 2012 applied
For juniors constrained by limited resources, usable and inexpensive government survey data is often the key to stimulating and advancing greenfields projects.

June 4, 2012 technology
Eventually, as the number of constraints in inversion models increases, geoscientists will be able to map regions of alteration in proximity to orebodies, predicts Dr. Bill Morris and his colleagues.

June 3, 2012 Technology
Researchers at the Perth-based Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET) are developing an exploration simulator for training purposes. The aim of exSim is to improve the performance of explorers through simulated training.

May 25, 2012 profiles
It sounds ironic but when Christina McCarthy lost her field geologist job in the 2008 market crash she quickly turned to that very market for her next career. Today she's a Mining Specialist with Toronto's Euro Pacific Canada, helping to introduce exploration companies with investors who can provide the capital to advance their projects and ultimately get them to the mining stage.
May 22, 2012 market
Michael Chender, CEO, Metals Economics Group reports: The MEG Pipeline Activity Index (PAI)improved in March before declining again in April on lower financing, now increasingly debt financing, and weak drilling results, although the announcement of initial resources, which lags drilling, is at a four-year high. Significant gold drilling results have remained flat since peaking in November 2011, as adverse markets continue to make financing very difficult for early-stage explorers.
May 2, 2012 Library
Geological use of high-resolution satellite ASTER geoscience maps may help in the hunt for mineral resources in South Australia. The latest ASTER geoscience imagery was released by the South Australian government and is available free to explorers.
April 17, 2012 discovery
Gravity and magnetic surveys on the Uzboy gold exploration project in northern Kazakhstan have identified 18 new targets for Alhambra Resources.The Calgary-based company recently completed1,360 sq. km2 of phase-one ground gravity and high-resolution magnetic surveys on the Dombraly-Shirotnaia gold trend, the sight of two past-producing mines.
April 16, 2012 library
As provincial, national and international governments continue to strive to make their valuable data instantly available on-line, explorers are able to integrate the information to focus their projects and provide new insights into a prospective area. In this article we have collected some of the online geoscience data sites that we've visited and used for projects.
April 16, 2012 library
The Society of Exploration Geophysicists recently started a Wiki as a resource for working geophysicists, educators, and students in the field of geophysics. Initial wiki content is derived from Robert E. Sheriff's Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Geophysics, fourth edition. Wiki content is being developed with input from the membership of the SEG. Recent updates included: Poisson's ratio, short-time Fourier transform, and spectral decomposition.
April 12, 2012 library
The geoblogosphere is a growing and diverse collection of commentary on the world of geoscience: what's new and fascinating as well as ongoing debate about topics such as how the K-T boundary formed, what geoscientists should know before they graduate, and essential equipment for the field. The blog community is dominated by academics, mostly American, with input from exploration geoscientists as well as bloggers aligned with exploration technology providers and industry.
March 28, 2012 library
The International Mining for Development Centre (IM4DC) has released the first of a series of "best practice" guides to Australian mining development. The guides were prepared by researchers with the Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET), a joint venture between the mineral exploration industry, the University of Western Australia, Curtin University and the Government of Western Australia; and the Sustainable Minerals Institute at The University of Queensland. The IM4DC has made the work available on their website resources page.
March 22, 2012 market
Michael Chender, CEO, Metals Economics Group reports: MEG's Pipeline Activity Index recovered strongly in February after falling in the previous 3 months based largely on strong recovery in gold financings, coinciding with a pickup in significant drill results and new resource announcements.

March 15, 2012Expertise
Some of world's best exploration geologists gathered as a panel at PDAC 2012 to discuss what makes them repeat discovers when the majority of their peers spend their whole careers looking for, but never quite finding, an orebody. Here is some of their advice...

March 15, 2012Technology
Once upon a time, an uptick in mineral exploration spending promised a similar bump in new discoveries. But that's no longer true. Even though annual exploration spending is at an all-time high of $18 billion – double what it was two years ago – greenfields discoveries remain elusive and reserves are not being replaced...
March 9, 2012 market
In 2011, exploration budgets increased by $6.1 billion, up 50% from 2010 to set a new all-time high. Latin America remained the most popular destination, attracting 25% of global exploration spending, followed by Canada, which continues to take advantage of its large pool of junior explorers and exploration-focused tax incentives to attract 18% of the global total.
March 9, 2012 Discovery
Exploration activity is heating up in the Blackwater gold camp of central BC now that New Gold has consolidated its land position with a 100% interest in the Blackwater and adjacent Capoose properties. Another area play to keep an eye on is Greencastle Resources' Nechako project.

March 9, 2012 technology
Geosoft introduced VOXI Earth Modelling technology, for converting gravity or magnetic data into a 3D earth model,at the PDAC 2012. Behind VOXI Earth Modelling’s speed and agility is cloud technology engineered by Geosoft to conduct the complex geo-computing via the internet...
March 8, 2012 market
The remarkable discoveries in Brazil's far offshore Santos Basin over the past five years have lifted industry results, says Andrew Latham of global research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. He's predicting strong growth not only in world conventional oil and gas exploration from 2011's $60 billion+ spend but a healthy increase on the unconventional side, too, for 2012.

March 8, 2012 profiles
Since 1971 Dr. Catherine Aimone-Martin has been studying, lecturing, writing, consulting, blasting, teaching, analyzing her way through a career spanning from iron mine geological engineer to Emeritus Professor of Mineral Engineering at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and running her own blasting and vibration specialty firm.

November 15, 2011 profiles
While investigating one of the company's diamond operations in the sands of Namibia's Sperrgebiet, Bob Burrell, head of Namdeb Diamond Corporation's mineral resource department, found a cluster of copper ingots. The ingots turned out to be remnants of a 16th-century Portuguese trading vessel loaded with thousands of gold coins for trade in India.

August 15, 2011 profiles
Without the downturns in the exploration business that are as certain as the seasons, prospector Shawn Ryan might never have found the multi-million ounce White Gold deposit in the Yukon Territory...

August 15, 2011 expertise
Offshore wind power promises to be the way of the future for Europe's burgeoning electricity needs. Locating unexploded ordnance on the seabed is an important first step.

August 15, 2011 expertise
As the quantity of exploration data increases exponentially, companies that fail to efficiently organize, preserve, centralize and collaborate with their data will experience delays and missed opportunities...

August 15, 2011 applied
Deep in the basins of the East African Rift System are thought to be significant reservoirs of oil for countries like Kenya, but basalts and other volcanic extrusives seriously challenge seismic work.

August 15, 2011 applied
Three-dimensional model of an ultramafic feeder system to the Nikolai Greenstone Mafic Large Igneous Province answers important academic questions while revealing mining potential.

August 15, 2011 applied
Airborne geophysics in combination with geochemistry is helping to uncover more deposits in the Yukon's White Gold district.

August 15, 2011 applied
Deep earth imaging is revealing previously overlooked and undiscovered mineral bodies.Romios Gold recently announced the results of the Titan 24 geophysical survey carried out by Quantec Geoscience on its Trek Property in the Galore Creek area in north-western British Columbia. Romios is among many explorers reporting positive results from deep imaging.

August 15, 2011 applied
An intensive joint field school gives geosciences students hands-on application of field data acquisition and interpretation methods.

April 1, 2011 technology
Ian MacLeod, Geosoft Chief Technologist, looks at cloud computing from the perspective of earth explorers and exploration. The ultimate experience is one where all of our data and the tools we apply to our data are hosted in the cloud. But there are several challenges to overcome before we get there.

February 15, 2011 library
SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) are the most popular datasets on the Geosoft DAP Server. These grids make a great base group on a regional scale map or a relief surface to drape other data on in 3D. The entire dataset – 90m World or 30m US – can be downloaded in a few easy steps...
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