AV俱乐部

Geology Department Technical Staff 1971-1972

A brief bio since I left Dal:
I went to Australia after graduation and worked for the South Australian Department of Mines for 2 years doing airphoto interp and regional mapping in the north and central parts of the state. The field trips were simpler-no tents required, just cots and sleeping bags, and you just pointed the land Rover to wherever you wanted to go.
Went back to Halifax in 1971, did some part-time work at St.Mary's teaching labs, then started working for Mike Keen doing labs and various admin stuff in the department.
Worked for the NS Dept of Mines from 1973 to 1978 setting up the mineral inventory for the Province (hard copy at that time) and contributed to GEOSCAN the Canadian Geoscience database.
Decided I needed a change of scene and also wanted to get into private industry, so moved to Vanocuver in late 1978. Good times here then - had a job immediately with Amax Minerals Exploration as admin geologist and 'spare' field geologist. I got to do geochem and log core on lots of projects from southern BC to the Yukon-short trips rather than being on one project all summer. Got laid off in 1982 along with the rest of the mining industry here and drowned my sorrows with 3 months in Australia.
Did conract work for Chevron, Getty and a few others, then started with Falconbridge in 1983. Also started taking computer courses at this time. I met my first XT at Falconbridge and we even graduated to an AT within a year. I also got involved with mineral tenure management at that point (doing the assessment filing and permitting etc.). Went from there to Prime Explorations in 1987 (Murray Pezim's group). We had 60 junior companies with over 120 mineral projects in Canada and the US and the highlight was the discovery of the Eskay Creek gold mine. That job was a constant high.
Another lay-off in 1992. At that point I had just been married and had inherited two teenage girls, so it was actually fine to be at home for a while, although I did start doing consulting in mineral tenure from my husband's company (he's a land surveyor who started with McElhanney and, after a stint in Halifax in the 1980's with Cansite Surveys, started his own company here; its a small world, because he also worked with Laughie Meagher on a hydrographic survey in the Arctic, and did some work with Alan Ruffman; we met at Eskay Creek - he was doing the legal mining surveys).
In 1996 I came back downtown (we live in North Vancouver) to work for Kennecott as the Land and Contracts Manager. It's a great company and the job is pretty comprehensive. I handle the mineral tenure, the environmental permitting, and native consultation, and the project service and confidentiality agreements. I travel a fair amount, especially to the NWT where the bulk of our projects are. We have one mine coming into production - the Diavik diamond mine, and there is a continual search for more diamond pipes. With Nunavut becoming a territory and with the Nisga treaty in BC, the rules are changing everywhere, so just trying to keep up is tough.

So, that's it for me, so far. I'm still not sure how I got into this side of the mining business, but I'm glad I did. One can only stay in the field so long. I find when I talk to geology students, they are not even aware that this is a possible career direction and a vital support job for a mining company. I'm glad I had the opportunity to do real field work, and perhaps the fact that I know how a field project operates helps in this job.