SEG 45 Final_qx4 - Society of Economic Geologists
SEG 45 Final_qx4 - Society of Economic Geologists
SEG 45 Final_qx4 - Society of Economic Geologists
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8 <strong>SEG</strong> NEWSLETTER No 63 • OCTOBER 2005<br />
... from 7<br />
Presidential Perspective (Continued)<br />
and geochemical techniques, the intricacies<br />
<strong>of</strong> ore reserve estimation, 3-D computer<br />
modeling skills, strategic exploration<br />
design, mineral economics, and<br />
increasingly the social and humanistic<br />
skills required <strong>of</strong> geologists to secure<br />
social license for their company’s operations.<br />
As Bennis and O’Toole (2005)<br />
state, business is “a human activity in<br />
which judgments are made with messy,<br />
incomplete, and incoherent data.”<br />
Applied economic geology involves such<br />
“messy” data both in the science, but<br />
also in our inevitable interactions with<br />
people as part <strong>of</strong> the exploration and<br />
mining business.<br />
Given the existing divergence in our<br />
field between the academic and the<br />
applied, what is to be done? The first step<br />
is to recognize the problem. Bennis and<br />
O’Toole (2005) wrote that “The distinction<br />
between a pr<strong>of</strong>ession and an academic<br />
discipline in crucial.” In the early<br />
20 th century, economic geology was<br />
taught at both universities and at<br />
schools <strong>of</strong> mines—the latter largely trade<br />
schools for the mining industry. Schools<br />
<strong>of</strong> mines have essentially disappeared<br />
from the academic world or metamorphosed<br />
into institutes <strong>of</strong> technology. We<br />
cannot go backward to the trade school<br />
paradigm, but it may be worth trying, as<br />
Bennis and O’Toole (2005) suggest, “to<br />
strike a new balance between scientific<br />
rigor and practical relevance.”<br />
Accomplishing this task will not be<br />
easy and it will require commitment<br />
from both the academic and industrial<br />
communities. For many schools, practical<br />
relevance will not be an option. Most<br />
academic administrations will not have<br />
the patience to undertake the re-organization<br />
<strong>of</strong> what is a very small and generally<br />
unpr<strong>of</strong>itable (academic institutions<br />
are businesses too!) part <strong>of</strong> their<br />
organization.<br />
Industry needs to identify the few<br />
schools that have an orientation that<br />
will allow practical research and teaching<br />
to flourish. Critically, industry will<br />
have to provide significant financial<br />
support to ensure that school administrations<br />
nurture and follow such a path.<br />
Without such support there will be no<br />
incentive for schools to reward academics<br />
for applied research and for<br />
teaching students the practicalities <strong>of</strong><br />
mineral exploration and production. If<br />
the funding from “pure” research bodies<br />
such as NSF exceeds the money available<br />
from industry for “applied”<br />
research, universities will obviously follow<br />
the larger pot <strong>of</strong> funding.<br />
There is urgency to this task. Very few<br />
schools worldwide retain the ability to<br />
undertake the sort <strong>of</strong> applied research<br />
and education required by industry.<br />
However, the mining industry does not<br />
employ large numbers <strong>of</strong> people.<br />
Probably five schools worldwide could<br />
IMDEX/Cascabel –<br />
Fifteen years <strong>of</strong> geological consulting in Mexico . . .<br />
PAID ADVERTISEMENT<br />
provide the industry with the critical<br />
personnel needed. Schools themselves<br />
will not undertake this selection process.<br />
Without significant financial incentives<br />
from industry, all schools will choose the<br />
scientific route as a practical business<br />
decision. Only a significant and stable<br />
source <strong>of</strong> industrial funding will encourage<br />
some schools to look to a pr<strong>of</strong>essional<br />
education in economic geology as<br />
a worthy goal and a sound business<br />
decision.<br />
<strong>Economic</strong> geology is both a pr<strong>of</strong>ession<br />
and a scientific discipline.<br />
Individuals in both spheres are critical<br />
to our continued success at producing<br />
the commodities that the world needs in<br />
ways that are socially acceptable.<br />
However, we are at a crossroads where<br />
the world’s educational infrastructure is<br />
about to totally embrace the scientific,<br />
rather than applied, paradigm for economic<br />
geology. Industry needs to step<br />
up to the plate to ensure that education<br />
can deliver both science and pr<strong>of</strong>essional<br />
training. With this step, industry<br />
can ensure that it gets the best and<br />
brightest to move mining confidently<br />
into the 21 st century.<br />
REFERENCES<br />
Bennis, W.G. and O’Toole, J., 2005, How business<br />
schools lost their way: Harvard<br />
Business Review, v. 83 (5), p. 96–104. 1<br />
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P.O. Box 65538 • Tucson, AZ 85728 USA<br />
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