GeOCHemISTea

For this episode we read Rob's paper: Natural attenuation in the vadose zone: Nature's gift to mine closure (Bowell, 2023) From rethinking the green economy to recovering metals and ores in naturally occurring ways, this episode encompasses a lot of topics currently in the news but a uniquely Rob perspective. Along the way, we may even learn about the vadose zone and the potential to remed...

Want to hear some more of Rob's thoughts? But also just general silliness from before we started to record? Enjoy!

At GeOCHemISTea we love it when someone is so passionate about their geochemistry topic that they reach out and request(!!) to be on the show. An honor, Ben! So what ground did we cover... manifest your own destiny (or was that the US in the 1800s?). Ben has been a geochemist, a geophysicist, and a data scientist; there's lots of nuggets in there for young geos who are looking for the how-to.....

For this episode we read: Using machine learning to estimate a key missing geochemical variable in mining exploration: application of the Random Forest algorithm to multi-sensor core logging data (Schnitzler et al., 2019)  A big difference between applied geochemistry and machine is the terminology, but once you start to chip away at this, like Britt, you will realize that the two disciplines are...

For this episode we read a chapter from Sam Cantor's thesis entitled: Exploration Tool: Tracking Cryptic Alteration Surrounding the Iscaycruz Zn (Pb-Cu-Ag) Skarn-CRD Deposit, Central Peru (Cantor, 2020)   Have you implemented UV lamps into your exploration programs to help try and sort out complex mineralogy and vein paragenesis? Sam Cantor explains his side hustle at the Mineral Deposits Rese...

Honestly... I don't know which is more interesting... the content of the mesothermal gold chat or the tea. Almost 17 years after the work was originally presented, we dive into Jeff's honors project - a study on gold mineralization at the Callie Deposit, Dead Bullock Soak, NT, Australia. The evolution of the research to present day is fascinating for all the fans who have asked for some or...

A big thanks to Heidi Pass, Michelle Carery, Dave Lawie, Pim van Geffen, Putra Sadikin, Mike Whitbread, Des Pascoe, & Steve Sugden for rolling with this as we tried for our Holiday special to embody the Dickens-esq theme of Geochemistry: Past, Present & Future. Everyone on the show this month was part of the ioGlobal team, a global applied geochemistry consultancy for the mineral explorati...

We always talk about fluids in geochemistry. How the ore metals are moving and how they are depositing - we think in pressure-temperature-redox space. However, when we get our geology, structure and geochemistry in 3D... and then we start to rotate a model for the first time... it is the most rewarding moment because we see the fluid pathway and why our metals have deposited. Nothing, perhaps, in...

There are geochemists and isotope geochemists... this episode we're speaking with the latter and this discussion could not be more interesting! Seriously. I found myself at different points so riveted (by that I mean thinking too hard) that I forgot I was supposed to be asking more questions. As usual, my favorite part of the episode is Tea Time, but for a different reason. As an undergraduate...

Critical metals are merely lists built based on geopolitics and supply chain, but are nonetheless essential for advanced technology and particularly the 'green' energy transition. Our interview spans softball critical metal questions to talking about the dredged material containing sulfate-reducing bacteria that is generating pyrite on the bottom of a canal in the Chesapeake watershed thro...

This episode returns to our roots... to our very first episode with Simon where we talked about the geochemistry of Carlin deposits, except this time we're talking about high sulfidation epithermal systems. We're talking scale, exploration methodologies, geochemistry, and even a light amount of geophysics, all with a stiffly brewed cup of tea. For this episode we read two papers: Alturas:...

This is a different conversation from those we’ve had before because we took two extremely different topics in hydrogeochemistry and pXRF on drillcore and looked at how these different techniques and scales come together in a junior exploration program. If you've never been to Nevada, no worries... we're going there together, now. For this episode we read: Parts per trillion (ppt) gold in...

A favorite thing Dave likes to say is "we do all sorts of things to the rocks... to try and understand them...." But then Dave often likes to tell geologists and especially mining engineers that "rocks don't give a shit to what we think of them. They're just rocks. They're just gonna sit there and be like, all right, whatever guys. I'm a rock." And as for why yo...

For this episode we read the Datarock blog post Fusing core imagery and chemistry to model stratigraphy. Perhaps more interesting that the foundation of Datarock is built on Aussie rules football is some of the advice that Brenton Crawford, one of the the company's founders has to impart: that we can get distracted by what we 'need' from a university in order to get the geoscience job...

For this episode we read: Geochemical Modeling of Water-Rock Interactions in Mining Environments  (Alpers and Nordstrom, 1997). For those who've asked "how do I become an environmental geochemist?" ...Tom has some advice for you. And for those that have questions about the business of consulting... his tea has some hard numbers. Best, though, is when we examine geochemical modeling p...

We think we speak for everyone that the geochemical community is forever enriched by Putra's decision not to study plankton biostratigraphy or go into construction. Everyone's favorite ioGAS product manager stops by the show this month to talk to us about his journey through an MSc, MBA and life in general, as well as some good off-the-cuff Tea, and then a stimulating discussion on interpreting ge...

For this episode we read: " Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy – An Emerging Analytical Tool for Mineral Exploration (Harmon et al., 2019)" Starting from the basics of what is LIBS through to cutting edge applications, Andrew Somers (Global Business Director: Geochemistry at SciAps Inc.) is here to guide us through the ins and outs of this tech.  For our young geochemists - are you nervous...

What are we observing versus what are we supposed to see, in other words, how (and how much) is dogma directing our interpretations? We explore this concept this month when we delve into Duncan McLeish's PhD work on the transport and deposition of gold at the Brucejack Deposit (Canada).  In a world where aqueous complexation has long been considered the only viable means of transporting gold...

Did you know that in addition to being one of our industry's geochemical powerhouses, JC is also an artist? But also as we continue along in the episode we'll see that he's perhaps a staunch businessman.  For this month's episode we reviewed a PDAC short course organized by JC and Lynda Bloom entitled: "Geochemical Modeling for Orebody Knowledge and Exploration Targeting Works...

Article: Random forest rock type classification with integration of geochemical and photographic data (Trott et al., 2022) Do you want to integrate machine learning into your exploration workflow, but feel precluded from doing so because of complicated terminology in the majority of the literature? Have a crack at Mac's first paper and then join us for this discussion on how he implemented a relat...

Have you perused a geochemistry lab schedule and not known where to start? Don't worry - the answers are not obvious and GeocHemiSTea is here to help!  We have broken this episode into six sections to get to your answers quicker, but considering the complexity of the topic and the importance of having the best data possible we recommend listening to this episode in its entirety!  Orienta...

For this episode we had a squiz at: "Mineral Geochemistry Vectoring: Uncovering Northwest Queensland’s Hidden Potential" (Steadman et al., 2021), "Improving geological logging of drill holes using geochemical data and data analytics for mineral exploration in the Gawler Ranges, South Australia" (Hill et al., 2021), and the tutorials on the Mineral Mapping website.  There's a role for classica...

Excited for Mike's upcoming episode on bridging the gap between classical geochemistry and geochemistry in data science? Enjoy a teaser on how our email chain evolved during the development of this episode! 

For this episode we read: "A User's Guide to Basalt Discrimination Diagrams" by Pearce (1996). Surely you have seen a geochemical diagram before... Winchester and Floyd (1977) for the classification of volcanic rocks or even Pearce's 1996 diagram to classify basalts. Have you combed the literature to find the most fit-for-purpose diagram for your own rock samples? Look no further! In this discussi...

These questions were meant to be a summary at the end of Episode 5 to tie everything together, instead there is so much great information that we decided to give this bonus content to you as a preview of what is to come in Thursday's episode!