Abstract:
The talk discusses the geology and the interesting history of the Golden Blocks
(Aorangi) Mine, the principal mine in the West Wanganui Goldfield of North-West
Nelson. During its relatively short life (1899 to 1914) it produced 26,596 oz of gold
from 23,693 tons of ore from quartz shoots hosted within a narrow graphitic black
shale unit, which runs in north-south belt over approximately 15 kms.

The mineralized belt containing a number of small gold mines, of which Golden
Blocks was the largest, lies in an 88,000 acre former Maori Reserve and is often
referred to as “The Forgotten Goldfield”. This reserve, which was called Taitapu,
was sold in 1895, together with the underlying mineral (gold and coal) and timber
rights, to an English company, The Taitapu Gold Estates Ltd, which was based in
London. This land remained in private ownership through until 1987 when it was
purchased by the Nelson Conservancy for $650,000. Because the land and its
underlying mineral rights were held under private ownership for almost 90 years
successive NZ Governments were unable to issue any exploration or mining claims,
licences or permits within the area and so it remains largely under-explored.
Although the area was mined for coal and gold and was heavily logged, all these
activities were undertaken under by companies with leases obtained from the land
owners and not from government agencies.

 
About our speaker:
John Taylor is a Cornish–born mining engineer who graduated from the Royal
School of Mines, London many years ago. Since then he has worked for both
mining companies and mineral industry consultancies in New Zealand and
internationally. After nearly 30 years working in places such as Cyprus, Iran, Spain
and Australia he came to New Zealand in 1993 to work as project engineer on the
Globe-Progress Mine for Macraes Mining. In 2003 he joined Solid Energy and
where he eventually became Underground and Subsurface Investigations Manager
on the Millerton Project at Stockton.

He currently works as a Reefton-based consultant engaged in subsurface
investigation and mining heritage projects, as well as other mineral industry
ventures. He is also a member of the West Coast Tai Poutini Conservation Board
where he is able to contribute his knowledge on mining best practice and mining
heritage advocacy.

His Cornish background probably explains his lifetime enthusiasm for mining history
and mining heritage projects. This interest has led to his current project work for
New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals and WorkSafe New Zealand on the National
Mine Plan Project. This project has led to a number of newspaper articles and radio
programmes, where he has been nicknamed “The Map Man”.

The Auckland AusIMM discussion group invites you to a talk from Stuart Rabone on Wednesday the 18th of July at 6.00pm. The talk is titled “Mining on Schedule Four Land on the Conservation Estate”.

Stuart will speak on the philosophy, negotiating, work and waiting involved in obtaining a right to mine for gold in conservation land.

About our speaker:
Stuart Rabone has had a 50 year career in exploration and mining, mostly in New Zealand and mostly in the Coromandel. He has assisted in the discovery of Golden Cross and was involved in the discovery of Correnso and the Moonlight-Favona lodes at Waihi, now being mined by OceanaGold.

The Christchurch AusIMM discussion group invites you to a talk from Joanna Lea Petheram on Thursday the 26th of July at 6.00pm in the Golder Associates Christchurch office. The talk is titled “Temperature Monitoring and Strength Testing during Construction of a Cement Bentonite Slurry Cut-off Wall, Canadian Oil Sands”.

Joanna will give a brief introduction to oils sands formation and mining in Northern Alberta, Canada and then discuss a cement bentonite slurry cut-off wall which was constructed within a subsurface alluvial channel before construction of a tailings dam above. Detailed monitoring of the in-situ slurry temperature was undertaken, and enabled slurry samples to be stored at temperatures which mimicked the slurry temperature of the wall as it cured. The strength testing results were lower than standard ambient temperature testing and may represent more realistic slurry strength gains in the field.

About our speaker:
Joanna Lea Petheram is a Senior Engineering Geologist and currently works for Davis Ogilvie in Christchurch. She began her career working in consulting and worked on coal mining projects on the West Coast of New Zealand. She then took a position as an onsite geotechnical engineer at an opencast gold mine in New South Wales, Australia after which she moved to Alberta, Canada and returning to consulting. While in Canada Joanna worked on coal and gold mining projects, however her main focus was design, monitoring and operational support for tailings dams in the oil sands industry. She currently works on geotechnical investigations for residential and commercial projects as well as subdivision development throughout the South Island. She has found her project management skills and experience in slope stability, soil and rock mechanics, hydrogeology and geotechnical hazard assessment gained during her time in mining to be invaluable to her current position.

Abstract:
This talk sets out to show that the concept of Peak Oil is obsolete. The talk consists of the following chapters:
1. Peak Oil
2. Recent discoveries of conventional oil and gas deposits (Brazil, Mediterranean, Arctic, Canada)
3. Unconventional oil and gas: shale oil and gas (“fracking”)
4. Coal
5. Future new resources
6. The Industrial revolution – the Green movement and fossil fuels

 
About our speaker:
Gerrit van der Lingen studied geology at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. The subject of his PhD thesis was the geology and structure of an area in the central Spanish Pyrenees. His first job was in Surinam, South America, where he worked in the Amazon jungle for three years. In 1965, he came to New Zealand to join the Sedimentology Laboratory of the NZ Geological Survey. He took part in two expeditions of the Deep Sea Drilling Project on the scientific drilling ship the Glomar Challenger. While still employed by the NZ Geological Survey, he also carried out research, jointly with colleague David Smale, on the petrology of drill cores from the Great South Basin and Taranaki. 8 papers and reports were produced. He worked as a private consultant from 1990 and was a Research Associate at the University of Canterbury. He carried out consultancy work for the Petrocorp Oil Company, producing 12 reports on drill core samples. From 1991 to 2002 he was involved in paleoclimate research, studying ocean sediment cores from the Tasman Sea and Southern Ocean. For the last 16 years he has been active in the climate change debate. He collated his articles, essays, debates, etc. in a book titled “The Fable of a Stable
Climate”, published in 2016.

The Christchurch AusIMM discussion group invites you to a talk from Terry Widdowson on Thursday the 28th of June at 6.00pm in the Golder Associates Christchurch office. The talk is titled “Remediation of arsenic and zinc at the former Alexander Gold Mine near Reefton”.

Terry will present on the remediation of arsenic and zinc contaminated tailings at the former Alexander Gold Mine Processing Complex near Reefton. Arsenic concentrations reached 35 wt % in a ‘Roaster’ and 10 wt % in tailings stockpiles. The primary objective was to make the site safe for human access while retaining heritage structures, this was achieved by burying the contaminated soil and tailings in an on-site engineered containment cell. The main challenge for the project was the remote location and the logistics of getting equipment and people in and out of the site during the remediation works.

 
Terry Widdowson has over 25 years’ experience as a hydrogeologist and geoscientist, gained in the UK and NZ. He has worked in both the private (environmental consultants) and public sector (environmental regulators). With a degree in Earth Science, Terry spent his early post graduate years working for a deep drilling contractor involved in the geological investigations for an underground nuclear waste repository in the UK; since then he has worked in the contaminated land sector. Terry has lived in NZ for the past 10 years and he has been fortunate to work on the consenting for some of the country’s largest infrastructure projects (Waterview Connection, Victoria Park Tunnel, City Rail Link (Auckland); Southern Motorway (Christchurch). He has also worked on some really interesting remediation projects, Alexander Gold Mine being one of them.

Lauren will present an overview of her PhD research on the relationship between gold and tungsten mineralisation in Otago. The talk will focus on the Macraes mine, examining how the mineralisation style differs between the two metals within the deposit. She will discuss the use of portable XRF in characterising tungsten mineralisation, and how this technique was used to develop a model of the mineralisation within the open pit. The talk will end with a discussion of how the Macraes model can be extrapolated across Otago with respect to other gold/tungsten deposits.

Lauren Farmer earned her B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Southampton (United Kingdom) and her PhD from the University of Otago. Her Master’s thesis examined the clay mineralogy of the Alpine Fault Zone. Her PhD project focused on the world-class Macraes deposit in Otago, and combined elements of structural geology, geostatistics and geochemistry to characterise the tungsten mineralisation. Since graduating in 2016 she has worked as a consultant geologist on projects both globally and within New Zealand.

The global effort to transition from fossil fuels to “green” energy technologies (wind, solar, geothermal) to help mitigate the potential impacts of climate change is well underway. However, there are significant challenges associated with this transition, particularly related to the supply of the mineral resources required to manufacture these new energy sources. Do we have enough lithium for the new fleet of electric cars? Can we stop mining by encouraging more recycling? In this talk Shaun will give an overview of our current need and usage of mineral resources, address misconceptions about our ability to supply the resources required, and discuss how our society (both New Zealand and globally) view the mining sector and the challenges these attitudes pose for successful development of a sustainable future.

Shaun Barker received a BSc(Hons) degree from the University of Otago in 2004, with his Honours thesis focusing on the structural context and geochemistry of pseudotachylite in Central Otago. He then completed a PhD titled “Dynamics of fluid flow and fluid chemistry during crustal shortening” at The Australian National University in 2007. Shaun then moved to the Mineral Deposit Research Unit at UBC, where he worked on the genesis of Carlin-type gold deposits in Nevada, and identifying vectors towards mineralisation. Since 2012, Shaun has worked at the University of Waikato as a senior lecturer, and is joining CODES at the University of Tasmania in July to work on sedimentary-hosted gold and copper deposits.

The feature event of our 125 year anniversary celebrations, the Thought Leadership Series, is coming to Dunedin.

This is a unique and special event for us. An opportunity to celebrate with our members and thank those that have contributed so much to our Institute over the past 125 years.

The program will include a short film showcasing our history, a panel of industry luminaries discussing the critical question: ‘How will professionals shape the future of the resources sector’ and networking with complimentary drinks and canapes.

Don’t miss this highly anticipated event, register now as tickets are limited. For more information, please click here.

Harry will present a brief overview as well as a series of case studies showcasing the capability of ground penetrating radar (GPR) in geomorphic, geologic and geoarchaeological environments. This talk will illustrate how it is possible to better understand the subsurface in utilizing GPR for mineral, archaeological and aggregate exploration.

Harry Jol Harry Jol earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Simon Fraser University (Canada) and Ph.D. from the University of Calgary (Canada, 1996). After 2 post-doctoral fellowships, he accepted a position at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he is presently a Professor.  During his Master’s degree he worked on the Fraser River Delta conducting a high resolution shallow seismic program in collaboration with the Geological Survey of Canada. During in his Ph.D. research through to the present he has utilized ground penetrating radar (GPR) at more than 1200+ sites in North America, Europe, Israel, New Zealand, Australia, and Antarctica which has resulted in being nominated and awarded Fellow of the Geological Society of America. Harry has a broad background in the earth sciences, particularly geomorphology, stratigraphy, and geoarchaeology. His collaborative research includes undergraduate students and results from these projects have resulted in numerous publications, conference presentations and three edited GPR volumes.