This course is aimed at front-line geologists conducting or supervising tenement-based exploration, particularly gold exploration. Most geologists do not have the luxury of scanning the globe for their next project, but are confined to a group of tenements with responsibility for logging drill chips and core, mapping outcrops, compiling and presenting exploration data, and generating drill targets.

An Explorer’s Guide to Hydrothermal Alteration in the Yilgarn Craton and Beyond addresses these challenging issues by providing a review of the diverse nature and styles of hydrothermal alteration in the Yilgarn craton Western Australia, with an emphasis on applications to gold exploration.

Run over two days, this course combines morning lectures and practical, laboratory-based study using case studies and specimens from a range of gold deposits, including those in the Kalgoorlie, Laverton, Leonora and Southern Cross districts. The course was originally developed for in-house training at Sons of Gwalia but has subsequently been delivered at several Western Australian mine sites, and expanded to include results of recent work carried out in completion of The Yilgarn Gold Targeting Atlas for the Geological Survey of Western Australia. While core presenters (Witt, Hagemann) focus on hydrothermal alteration in the Yilgarn Craton, the content has relevance to explorers (particularly those targeting gold) in other Archean terranes and younger orogenic belts. Guest presenters broaden the scope of the course to include talks on hydrothermal alteration and other gold-related topics in other Australian and overseas localities.

The short course brochure with further information and registration details is available here.