Stewart R. Wallace — 1919–2009 - Society of Economic Geologists

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6 SEG NEWSLETTER No 78 JULY 2009 ... from 5 SEG Council Actions — Toronto, Canada (Continued) Regional VPs by e-mail in addition to publication in the SEG Newsletter. � On a motion from S-J. Barnes, accepted the Program Committee report presented by the Past President and Executive Director, with the following discussion items: – SEG participation in the Global Uranium Symposium in Colorado, USA (May 2009) would be through a field trip, workshop, technical session, and exhibit booth. Overall the interest by attendees was picking up but student registrations were low. – No official participation by SEG was planned for the April Arc-Continent Collision conference in NSW, Australia, or the May GAC-MAC meeting in Toronto. – SEG should have some participation in the Europe Student Chapter Conference but the dates had not been finalized. F. Molnár would follow up on this. – The XII Chilean Geocongress (Novem - ber) needs a contact person for SEG. – SEG 2010 was on track with an Organizing Committee meeting to be held during the PDAC in early March. – Participation by SEG in SME meetings should move forward using the vehicle of Geometallurgy—in particular, short courses. Better linkages between websites of the two organizations would be helpful. � Accepted, on a motion from S-J. Barnes, the Student Affairs Committee report as submitted by the Vice President for Student Affairs, Anthony Harris, and presented by the Execu tive Director. The importance of a staff person dedicated to student issues was recognized. � Approved, on a motion from J.W. Hedenquist, the slate for the Nominat - ing Committee as presented by N. Williams. Members are as follows: N. Williams (Chair), M.W. Hitzman, J.M. Franklin, A.D. Goode, V. Lickfold, R.D. Presnell, and F.I. de Azevedo. Y. Watanabe would be consulted with respect to candidates from Asia. � Approved, on a motion from L. Chap - man, the slate for the Committee on Committees as presented by J.W. Hedenquist. Members are as follows: C.D. Anglin (Chair), R.P. Moritz, J. Mavrogenes, G.J. Masterman, M.S. Enders, and Y. Watanabe. � Approved, on a motion from N. Williams, the addition of R.D. Presnell (Coun cilor) to the Fellowship Admissions Committee. � Agreed that there was a need to ensure consistency between language in the Bylaws and committee guidelines as published on the website. S-J. Barnes requested clarification on the Silver Medal in this regard. � Passed a motion from J.W. Heden - quist to ratify the membership of the Investment Committee for 2009 as follows: G.R. Ireland – Chair, N.D. Adshead, D.J. Baker, C.E. Herald, B.G. Hoal, G.C. Huber, J.R. Huspeni, H.J. Noyes, and B.J. Suchomel. � Passed a motion from N. Williams to accept the Investment Committee’s February 19, 2009, recommendation that the Investment Policy Statement be amended to further diversify the asset allocation and improve the current balance of risk and reward. � Agreed, after discussion on the consequences of the economic downturn and the impact on students, to implement the following measures that would also be recommended to the SEG Foundation: – Focus on overall student support rather than particular programs provided that selectivity was exercised. The Student Affairs Com mittee should consider improvements in the current process of awarding grants to SEG Student Chapters. – Improve visibility of student-related materials, particularly on the website, but also through direct distribution to students and Student Chapters, e.g., multilingual mentoring posters/ flyers. – Encourage Traveling Lecturers (and other experienced SEG members) to visit Student Chapters and meet with students. – Market the Society and its products/ services more professionally, recognizing that this would require additional resources including outsourcing and upgrading the website. � Agreed with the President’s argument for scenario planning over a threeyear period to include best/ worst case scenarios that would aid budgeting, in particular the Founda tion’s allocation of funds for student support. This planning would better allow the Society and Foundation to allocate priorities to expenditures. � Agreed to hold the next meeting of the Council at the GSA annual conference in Portland, Oregon, USA, on the morning of Saturday, October 17, 2009. This meeting would be succeeded in the afternoon by a gathering of the SEG Foundation Board of Trustees. � Adjourned the meeting at 12:25 p.m. on a motion from L.H. Chapman. 1 Contributions 3/1/09–5/31/09 Thank you for your generous contributions to the Society and the SEG Foundation. SEG Seavoy, Ronald E., USA Student Field Trip Fund Tooker, Edwin W., USA Garay, Enrique, Peru Halbert, Gary R., USA Hishida, Hajime, Chile Kelly, James M., USA Rayner, Jeffrey G., Italy Silva, Pedro G., Chile SEG Foundation General Fund Cheney, Eric S., USA Field, Cyrus W., USA Highsmith, R. Patrick, USA Student Fellowship Fund Corporate Sponsor Gold Fields Exploration, USA Byrne, Kevin, Canada Hugo Dummett Fund Kelly, James M., USA Stanton, Richard L., Australia Wolfgram, Diane, USA Hickok-Radford Fund Cathles, Lawrence M., USA McKinstry Fund Cathles, Lawrence M., USA The Timothy Nutt Memorial Fund Deane, John G., South Africa Coeur d’Alene Mines, USA Seavoy, Ronald E., USA Talon Gold (US) Llc, USA Pulido Rodriguez, William A., Colombia The Discovery Fund Enders, M. Stephen, USA Canada Foundation Franklin, James M., Canada Robertson, David S., Canada Jebrak, Michel, Canada
JULY 2009 No 78 SEG NEWSLETTER 7 PRESIDENTIAL PERSPECTIVE Taking Advantage of Time As the northern hemisphere warms with the beginning of summer, there are some signs of an improving economy. Commodity prices have firmed and the debate is now focused on whether this is sustainable—or just a false start! When SEG held customary meetings around a typically chilly Prospectors and Develop - ers Association Conference (PDAC) in Toronto just a few months ago the mood was resilient—recognition of challenges but determination to move forward. Young employees and students were on most peoples’ minds since this is the group that typically suffers during downturns, with a negative impact that lasts well beyond. We are fortunate as a society to have 900 student members spread around the globe. We have a responsibility to help these students, because if we can be sure of one thing, it is that SEG, the industry, and academia will need their youthful energy and ideas, possibly in the relatively near future, if the recovery is really approaching. Now is the time to support students! That takes me to my topic for this Perspective – Time – both geological time with its significance to economic geology and exploration, and also our individual and collective ability to use time effectively. Understanding time in millions and billions of years is another one of those attributes that defines geoscientists. In economic geology, we debate the role that major secular changes in the earth and atmosphere play on the formation of different types of ore deposits—for example, komatiite-hosted nickel, iron formation, various types of uranium deposits, and different types of gold and copper deposits. Conversely, the anomalous nature of the deposits themselves help to constrain the chemistry of the atmosphere and oceans, the development of organic processes, the evolution of the crust, and the variation of major earth processes through time. Deposits and their temporal relationship to regional geology define metallogenic epochs and form the basis for broad area selection. Understanding both relative and absolute temporal constraints allows explorers to focus on key formations, structures, magmatic suites, or tectonic events. New geochronological methods that allow us to more accurately constrain metallogenic events are therefore widely sought by both researchers and explorationists. A new age often creates excitement, particularly when it confounds conventional thinking. The date and its interpreted significance can invigorate regional exploration and demand mapping or remapping of regional geological relationships. A new date can also generate debate, which of course can be stimulating or possibly misleading, depending on the understanding of temporal relations. Herein lies the fascination with applied geo - chronology: it offers the possibility of confirming or refuting current interpretations at least until a new and improved technique produces a different age! Absolute age is accepted as important but even greater debate surrounds the evolution and longevity of major ore-forming systems. Systematic studies on individual districts provide evidence for short dramatic events, protracted processes, episodic activity, and the coincidental superposition of ores systems over hundreds of millions of years. As with new dates for individual deposits, some of the interpretations of longevity confound current models and force us to reexamine accepted dogma. My current job has taken me into the world of hydrometallurgy—the technology to extract metals from rocks or concentrates using water, acid, and other reagents under varying conditions. From my (biased) perspective, this is an attempt to reverse hydrothermal processes at extremely rapid rates—for example, in minutes or hours under appropriate pressure and temperature in an autoclave. Involvement with chemists and engineers in this work has changed my perspective. I have learnt much, gained respect for practitioners in another part of our business, and realized how rapidly some processes can occur under conditions somewhat similar to those we invoke for ore formation. Although I am not suggesting that deposits formed in minutes or hours, hydrometallurgy demonstrates that it is possible to significantly accelerate some of the processes that are relevant to ore formation. Few would deny the importance of understanding timing in economic geology from both scientific and practical perspectives, but we frequently pay less attention to understanding the importance of timing in other aspects of our work. Over the last few years of frenetic activity, did we take enough time to plan, complete work, and perhaps most importantly, think? In exploration, it is my perspective that some of our work in the last five years has JOHN F. H. THOMPSON SEG President 2009 been substandard. At the very least, information has not been recorded adequately in spite of the availability of numerous digital tools and databases. Now is the time to catch up, review past work, complete quality mapping and core logging, record the data properly, and prioritize targets for future drilling when funds become available. For researchers, this is also a good time to consider new research areas that will provide projects for a new crop of talented graduate students, many of whom will have industry experience and be highly motivated. Attracting industry funding will be an issue, but now is the time to build new relationships with the companies that are poised to prosper in the future and are willing to look beyond their current difficulties. The downturn offers an opportunity to rebalance our efforts in industry, in research, and in SEG. We can take some time to pay attention to details while also devoting time to develop new ideas. We need to be in circulation by getting out and talking to colleagues, potential partners, and students. To succeed at this, we should also take the time to communicate properly, listening and considering before offering our preferred solution. I have been confronted by numerous communication issues in recent years—my own and others. So now is the time to sort this out! As stated above, many of us believe that SEG must give even more attention to students. This includes student chapters, field trips, research grants, and conferences. It also includes efforts to get more SEG visitors to the chapters and universities. By my calculation, well over 50 lectures were given in universities by visiting SEG lecturers in 2008, both formally and informally. We have to maintain this fantastic effort in these difficult times by giving local lectures and taking advantage of trips to visit chapters and groups of interested students whenever possible. Let’s take the time now to secure the future of SEG. 1
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THINK AHEAD BHP Billiton is all abo
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Stewart R. Wallace — 1919–2009 - Society of Economic Geologists

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