Fieldwork in resource frame

ARMED with the latest technology, minerals explorers today gather more data in just a few hours than would have been imaginable to field geologists a few years ago.

Hand-held devices can quickly and accurately establish the metals content of core drill samples, significantly reducing the time it takes to evaluate resources.

And resources companies are spending more on exploration as the mining boom picks up. Estimated total mineral exploration expenditure in Australia was up 4 per cent in the September 2010 quarter, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, and the trend was up 25.2 per cent on the previous corresponding quarter. The upward trend is expected to continue in 2011.

It’s in this context geoscientists hope to showcase the latest developments in minerals search science at the inaugural Exploration Technologies 2011 conference to be held in Perth on March 28 and 29.

The conference, which is supported by the Australian Institute of Geoscientists, is the brainchild of Julian Vearncombe, who is aiming to attract more than 250 delegates to the event.

Due to be held every two years, the conference will focus both on new ways of data collection and advances in interpreting the mountains of valuable information.

Mr Vearncombe, of SJS Resource Management, said he would argue in a paper to the conference that field geologists still play the most critical role in resource discovery, despite all the advances in technology and techniques.

“It’s a controversial view, but the geologist is still the key to understanding the data, which data are important and the economics of the find,” he said.

“The geologist has to be intuitive about which pieces of data are useful; finding the data is the easy part.”

The deductive and analytical powers of the geologist, drawing on all the technologies, was still the closest to a ‘silver bullet’ in minerals exploration, Mr Vearncombe said.

Wayne Spilsbury, the incoming president of the WA branch of the AIG, said it was appropriate to hold the conference in WA because of its status as a ‘centre of excellence’ for geoscientists.

“WA has long been a centre for training of geoscientists and generally leads the world in this field,” Mr Spilsbury said.

Mr Spilsbury, who until recently managed minerals exploration in the Asia-Pacific region for Canadian mining giant Teck Cominco, said the technologies and procedures to help explorers ‘see’ deeper into the ground were largely being developed in WA.

Mr Vearncombe said Brisbane was also a leader in geoscience development, specifically centred on coal exploration.

The conference, which has attracted speakers from across Australia and one from Canada, will be held at the Burswood Convention Centre.