Exploration and production geology

At the MINEXCHANGE 2024 SME Annual Conference & Expo in Phoenix, AZ, I had the privilege to moderate and participate in a panel discussion comparing exploration and production geologists: looking into how their worlds interact, exploring their roles within the greater industry value chain, and eliciting advice for students and early-career geologists. The panel assembled was a diverse group of economic geologists, representing a broad range of experience levels, commodity types and roles as geologists in the exploration and mining industry. The panel consisted of Kris Alvarez from I-80 Gold, Gonzalo Mercado from First Majestic Silver, and Jake Anderson from Dahrouge Geologic Consulting, with help and guidance from Cathy Fitzgerald from Apollo Silver, Sam Siebenaler from Big Rock Industries, Jennifer Baar from Albemarle and Ken Coleman from Nevada Gold Mines. Two different career paths Early discussions centered around the polarization between exploration geologists and production geologists. But when we took a closer look at the differences between these groups, we came to realize there was so much more at play than these two teams or ideologies battling it out. Geologists often come out of school with minimal insight (if any) into the world of mining. They often have entered the industry with a thirst for adventure and visions of helicopters and remote camps in exotic places. Although these jobs exist, they are not as common as we are led to believe and, of course, they are not the only jobs available. Upon learning the scarcity and exclusivity of those romanticized roles, some geologists are “forced” into a role they did not know existed: production geology, working at a mine. The two career paths can be vastly different, each with its own distinct set of priorities and passions. Both are integral to the success of the discovery and mining of a deposit, but the two roles tend to attract different types of people. What makes each tick? How and when do their worlds overlap? How does the exploration geologist convey orebody knowledge to the production geologist? How is that knowledge used? How is orebody knowledge captured in a production environment conveyed back to exploration? As conversations with the panel continued, it became clear that exploration and production are simply endmembers of a continuum that includes resource development and resource modeling. It became apparent that highlighting similarities and differences between the endmembers was only part of a larger series of topics: What makes a good economic geologist? What is the geoscience value chain? What interactions occur between geoscience teams? And how do we get students and early-career geologists better exposure and training? Should we care about economic geologists? From a geology-centric perspective, geosciences are the foundation of the mining value chain, starting with exploration geologists making discoveries and culminating in production geologists as the final caretakers of an orebody. We must also include resource development geologists and resource modeling geologists, hydrologists, geotechnical engineers and geometallurgists, all working together to grow, define and de-risk deposits. Geoscience value chain The value chain begins with exploration geologists, who discover and conduct the initial definition of a deposit. Finding the next deposit to be mined is a cornerstone of the value chain. Also, announcements of discoveries or progress on existing exploration projects do much to help companies raise capital. Replacing mined tons and filling production profile gaps at existing operations is also vital. Much of the responsibility of replacing mined tons is arguably shared by exploration and resource development geologists through a combination of greenfield and brownfield exploration (with brownfields becoming the blurred line between exploration and development). The world of the resource development geologist is as varied and dynamic as any, with one hand in exploration and the other in production. These geologists should incorporate the rest of the mining team, including other geosciences, engineering and the mining operations. After a deposit is discovered, defined and de-risked, it becomes the production geologist’s job to ensure the orebody is maximized during mining. Along the way to production, the resource modeler is pulling together all the inputs from exploration and development geologists to create the geologic and resource block model. The modeling stage is truly where all the worlds of geology collide and where crucial conversations between exploration and production should take place (as well as all the geoscience, engineering and mining operations). But do they? In a perfect world there is a positive feedback loop of information and communication between the exploration team, the resource modeler and the production team. But is that what really happens? Is there a clean handoff of data for an exploration project to the resource modeler? If this is not the case, the modeling process will expose the data gaps (and there are always gaps, for resource modelers always want more data). How often do exploration and production teams interact, and what do those interactions look like? Most geologists will likely agree that the more interactions the better, but what is realistic? Despite everyone being busy, and the daily demands on a production geologist are particularly high, the interactions do need to happen. Both teams need an opportunity to convey orebody knowledge to one another and discuss what they are seeing in the data, and how the data will impact the other team. Beyond deposit-specific orebody knowledge, new ideas and findings in science, technology, software, equipment and techniques need to be shared. Working in isolation is bad news, though many of us have been guilty of it. (Speaking of working in isolation, if your organization does not have a centralized geologic database, there is no better time than now.) Quarterly meetups Although each organization has a unique set of needs, quarterly meetups are a good starting point. The setting of a resource model update seems fitting for these interactions. Walking through inputs from exploration, the modeling process and the model’s impact on mine planning and execution is an invaluable conversation for the entire value chain. The more often these conversations occur the better, and not just with select team members. These meetings are the perfect time to expose and educate early-career geologists to the entire mining value chain. Young geologists need to understand who their customers are and what those customers need from them. Regardless of frequency or the venue, these interactions must strive to be positive. The conversation must not be one way, and no team should feel like they are being dictated to, as this will only cause animosity. Competition is good, but an “us versus them” attitude can turn hostile. While not every meeting will be productive, if the focus is on making the meetings positive, productivity will come. What better way to build a good geologist than by having him or her understand the wants and needs of other teams? What makes a good geologist? Ask four geologists what makes a good geologist, and you will get five answers. Outside of a solid foundation of geologic understanding, there are many characteristics that make a good geologist, including being curious, observant, persistent, willing to adapt to change, and having the ability to think in 3D. No matter what the role, questions will be asked of geologists, and problems will need to be solved. Often, answering questions and solving problems will require varying amounts of asking more questions and making constant observations. Rocks have volume; the ability to think in 3D and visualize an orebody is essential for a geologist. A good exploration geologist must be highly detail oriented, but perhaps most of all, be a dreamer. Eternal optimism can be a driving force for projects and people. What makes a good production geologist? Truly, this role is often based in the world of engineering. They are still geologists, but they need to understand the value stream, their customers within the value stream and how to code-switch between their customers. The role of a production geologist is as the custodian of the orebody. They need to be able to convey messages to people who may not want to hear what they have to say (for example, what if we stockpiled low-grade material instead of sending it to the waste dump?). But ultimately, they are scientists. The best production geologists bring a new perspective to the table which their customers have not considered. Industry outreach and mentorships How do we get students and early-career geologists training and better exposure to the full geoscience value chain? At the university level (which is a topic for a much larger discussion), it can be tricky. Most geologists do not attend a mining-oriented school, and many do not get to take an economic geology class. Industry outreach is essential, whether it comes from organizations like SME or from the mining and exploration companies themselves. Students need to know the mining industry is a career path, and universities may or may not communicate that. Once in the workforce, it gets a bit easier. Often large companies have well-structured programs designed to cross-train recent graduates. However, smaller companies (producers, explorers and consulting companies alike) do not have established training programs. Instead, recent graduates gain exposure by being a part of a small team in which everyone gets to do everything. Regardless of company size or formal training programs, mentors are critical. For a recent graduate, building a network of mentors can be a daunting task. Who knows what? Who has experiences that you want to gain? Whose career do you want to emulate? This is where an experienced geologist can come in. Experienced geologists have the opportunity to impart what they know to the less experienced geologists. They help explain the “why are we doing this” and “why do we care” questions. Mentors should take their mentees along for the ride. Take them to meetings and involve them in discussions with other groups. Get them involved in other tasks outside their daily purview. Both the mentor and mentee need to make the effort to create time for meaningful exchanges, which may take help from management. Yes, jobs need to be done, but the more everyone knows and can do, the better the team will be. We should all be helping to lift each other up. But mentorship must be a two-way street. The mentee must want to absorb knowledge from the mentor and be interested in the topics at hand. Ideally, the mentee will give back to the mentor in the process. Everyone has something to learn as well as to teach. The big picture We started the panel discussion thinking we would address the differences between two types of people, but ultimately, we discovered the conversation was much bigger than that. The discussion quickly moved away from discussing endmembers and began to focus on the bigger picture: the interconnections within the geoscience value chain. The value chain may appear linear, and in many ways it is. But the chain should also loop back on itself, as a cycle of learning and sharing. The point of the discussion panel was to create a forum to get people to talk about geology in mining: not only to talk, but to candidly talk to people outside a work organization. It is an opportunity that does not happen every day. The planning sessions with the panelists, and everyone who helped, were some of the best and most fun geologic conversations I have had. This article is much more their words than mine. At the session, the passion brought by Alvarez, Mercado and Anderson was only matched by the audience. The sheer volume of questions, comments and answers from the audience is absolute proof that this conversation deserved to be had. And if the point of the panel session was to get people to think about bigger issues, even just for a couple of hours, then I think it achieved exactly that.

Exploration and production geology

Authored by:
Eric Baar

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To view the past issues of the UCA magazine you must be a member of SME/UCA.

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