Page 14 - 2020 GGE Newsletter

A NOTE FROM THE ECONOMIC GEOLOGY GROUP Page 14
CONT’D

Mary Doherty joined the group in May 2020 to manage the Professional Master’s Degree Program in Mineral Exploration. This non-
thesis Master’s program is focused for students interested in Economic Geology and Mineral Exploration. The program is set up with
Block courses of 1-2 weeks in length to allow working professional geologists to take up to 2 courses while continuing to work. On-campus
students may take elective semester based courses which complement their study interests. We currently have students taking optional
semester courses in Structural Geology, Mine Geology, Geostatistics, Data Analytics, Geophysics and Geochemistry. Our Professional
Master’s students are a blend of those continuing from a Bachelor’s Degree, and those returning from years of work and interested in com-
pleting their Master’s program. Mary taught Exploration Geochemistry GEGX571 with Dr. Chang and collaborators from the U.S. Geologi-
cal Survey. She comes to Colorado School of Mines from 30+ years working in the Mining Industry for Newmont, Freeport, BHP, time as a
Mine Geologist, Explorationist, Geochemist, and Business Leader. Her most recent post involved delivering advanced technologies for
mineral exploration in a collaborative industry team. She is enjoying both mentoring the current students, and working to recruit for the
Master’s program.

st
Steve Enders continued in his role as Director of Subsurface Frontier through August 1 2020, when he was appointed a Professor of
Practice and the Department Head for Mining Engineering, with a joint appointment in Geology and Geological Engineering. He was ap-
pointed to the Board of Governors for the CSM Foundation this Fall. Steve continues to teach GEGN403 – Mineral Exploration Design
and GEOL514 – Business of Economic Geology. For 514, Steve took a cohort of students from those courses to the Prospectors and Devel-
opers of Canada conference 2020, where they had outstanding opportunities to learn how the mineral exploration business works and to
build their network of contacts. Steve co-taught the Mine Mapping module in Field Camp with Dr. Christian Shorey. Field Camp was vir-
tual this year and a real challenge to teach field methods without going to the field. It turned out that drone photos of roadcuts in the Cen-
tral City area and continuous photos of the Orica tunnel in the Edgar Mine were an excellent platform for mapping.

Jae Erickson continues to expand the capabilities and capacity of the Thin Section Lab. In addi-
tion to the new polisher and vacuum impregnation machine added during 2019, this year an ultra-
violet glue curing station was added. Continued collaboration with other Colorado Universities has
resulted in new relationships and research endeavors, and the lab has received praise and recom-
mendations from industry partners. The lab continues to employ undergraduate students and ac-
cepts samples from CSM, collaborative partners, and external geologists.

Elizabeth Holley was tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Mining
Engineering during 2020, where she continues to bridge the gap between geoscience and mining.
She recently stepped into the role of Site Director for the CASERM NSF IUCRC. Her current group
comprises 6 PhD and one post-doc student, and the team's work spans the mining lifecycle. Addi-
tional detail is provided at the website: https://mininggeologyresearch.mines.edu/. Elizabeth is
working on a campus-wide initiative promoting innovation across the mining value chain to meet
the mineral demands of the low-carbon energy future, and she would welcome input and collabora-
tion from alumni and friends of Mines. She teaches GEOL/MNGN528 Mining Geology, as well as
GEOL/MNGN 310 and 311 which comprise the undergraduate geology track for mining engineers.

Yvette Kuiper started an International Geoscience
Programme Project, a flagship program of UNESCO,
along with Faouziya Haissen (Hassan II University – Figure 6: Dr. Holley panned for gold in Colombia during field work for the NSF
-funded project on Responsible Mining, Resilient Communities.
Casablanca, Morocco (Fulbright scholar in 2018), Pilar
Montero (University of Granada, Spain) and Sandra Barr
(Acadia University, Canada). This is the only United Nations organization with a mandate
to support research and capacity in geology and geophysics. The project will be centered
around field trips in Morocco, Iberia and eastern North America in the coming three or
four years starting with virtual meetings. These are attended by >100 participants from 20
countries. For information, please note the website, https://igcp683.org/. Yvette is editor
of a Geological Society of America Special Publication “New developments in the Appala-
chian-Caledonian-Variscan orogen” to be published in 2021. Stay tuned! Yvette continues
serving on the University Senate and started chairing the University Research Council in
2020. The field season was largely canceled due to the pandemic, but her MS students
Dustin Shockley and Ben Magnin were able to conduct field work in Colorado. Allison Sev-
erson finished her PhD and Logan Powell his Masters in Spring 2020. Students Sonia El-
lison, Noah Fleischer and Robby Charnock simply keep going strong! Yvette’s theme on the
teaching front was (unsurprisingly…) ‘going virtu-
al’. This all started in Spring just like for everyone Figure 5: A refolded fold in Golden Gate Canyon State Park taken during a GEOL505
field exercise on Halloween. Sparkly tarantula for scale!
else. In Summer, she was part of the challenge of
designing a virtual field camp. Because virtual
travel is for free and takes no time, she took the field camp students out to Rhoscolyn, Wales, where there are some fabulously folded low
grade metasedimentary rocks, with quartz veins that saw the later parts of the deformation. Students were able to roam the shoreline expo-
sures of Rhoscolyn and enjoy the geology, without rain gear! In Fall she taught GEOL505 - Advanced Structural Geology, including the
field component in Golden Gate Canyon State Park (masks on!). In Spring she teaches GEOL540 – Isotope Geochemistry and GEOL498 –
Plate Tectonics.