GSA Talk April – An Update on Exploration Success at the Woodlawn Deposit, NSW

Australian Institute of Geoscientists > Events > GSA Talk April – An Update on Exploration Success at the Woodlawn Deposit, NSW

GSA Talk April – An Update on Exploration Success at the Woodlawn Deposit, NSW


GSA April Meeting

Changing Mine Geology Culture in Nevada – One Australian Expatriate, Two Years to Complete

Speaker: Sergei Smolonogov, MAIG, RPGeo

 

Date

Thursday April 11
5:30 pm


 

Venue

City of Sydney RSL Club
The City of Sydney RSL Club is located at 565 George Street, near the corner of Liverpool Street.
Pre-talk drinks are on Level 3, with the talk on Level 4.


 

Abstract

The Carlin Trend in Nevada is North America’s largest and most significant gold producing district. In 2017 and 2018, Barrick undertook a major restructure, reassessment and culture change across Goldstrike & Cortez Mines to place Mine Geology and Near-Mine Exploration at the same level of importance as Mining and Processing. The need was driven by Geological practices, technology and thinking still entrenched in the 1990’s. Major organizational, staffing, data management, resource estimation, geological modelling, collaborative cultural and business integration changes were made. Geology was made baseline to all other functions. Success was visible by end of 2017, including – first resource and reserve replacement and growth since 2012, a single district 3D geological model and growth opportunities not realized previously. The changes put in place represent a snapshot of the future direction of Geology structures within larger companies mining and expanding major deposits where Geology can no longer work in isolation and with a restricted skill set.


 

Speaker

Sergei Smolonogov (‘Serge’) is a BAppSc (Hons) graduate of the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and Registered Professional Geologist with the AIG. Serge’s career has focussed on near-mine exploration, project, open-pit and underground mine Geology over 25 years. Within Australia he has worked from 1989 to 2007 across Northern and Central Australian Proterozoic and Archaean terrains, Eastern Australian Siluro-Devonian, before establishing himself in the Archaean Yilgarn. From 2007 he had the opportunity to start his career in the Tanzanian Lake Victoria Greenstone Belt, moving to the Nubian Rift in Eritrea, then Tethyan in Turkey. His most recent assignment over two years provided exposure to Carlin hosted epithermal deposits in Nevada, USA. He has been lucky to work at some of the world’s great deposits and contributed to their expansion e.g. North Mara Mine (Greenstone Au), Copler (Epithermal – Porphyry Au-Cu), Bisha VMS Cu-Zn-Au-Ag ), Goldstrike and Cortez (Epithermal – Carlin Au, Ag).His career for the last 11 years has specialized in establishing Geological Management Operating
Systems, team building and rebuilding, project development and mine expansions


 

More Information

Click here to download the abstract