ASEG news - Issue 17, 29th Aug 2019

Dear Members,

In today's news you'll find information on:

AEGC 2019: Data to Discovery
ASEG annual wine offer on its way
Volunteer positions available for the ASEG
News from the states
Upcoming events (National and International)
The latest in Exploration Geophysics
What's new in Preview?
Member Spotlight: James Alderman
Follow us on social media
Thanks to our corporate members

Don't forget to follow our social media accounts, for more regular updates on upcoming events and geoscience articles of interest.

AEGC 2019: Data to Discovery

We look forward to seeing you at the Australiasian Exploration Geoscience Convention next week in Perth (2-5 September), hosted by the ASEG, AIG and PESA. You can view the program here. The AEGC2019 organising committee is excited to host over 1,000 registered delegates and 350 confirmed workshop attendees. Daily networking events will complement over 280 oral presentations, 80 posters, and 90 exhibitors. The AEGC2019 organising committee would like to particularly welcome retired members and those enduring hardship - Retired member and hardship registration rates are now capped at the early bird rate of $550. Recent graduates (i.e. 1 year since degree completion) that have been unable to find gainful employment are eligible to register at the student rate of $250.

ASEG annual wine offer on its way

In August the SA/NT branch hosted the annual wine tasting event at the University of Adelaide, with invited guests who have provided valuable service or sponsorship to the ASEG in recent years. The guests didn't take their jobs lightly, and faced the difficult task of choosing between 31 reds, 21 whites and 7 sparklings. Look out for the wine offer coming to your inbox.

Guests enjoying the wines and deliberating over the votes

Volunteer positions available with the ASEG

How would you like to help out the ASEG and get a warm fuzzy feeling?

There are various positions available across different sub-committees. If you are interested in volunteering, please send an email to the relevant person listed below. We appreciate any time you can give, and some of these roles may take very little time. For general enquiries or to hear about other positions which may suit you better, please contact the secretariat at secretary@aseg.org.au.

Communications & Promotions committee: Helping out with the monthly newsletter, ASEG News, preparing content for ASEG social media, and general promotion of the ASEG.

Kate Robertson; Communications@aseg.org.au

Web committee: Updating the ASEG website.

Ian James; webmaster@aseg.org.au

Finance committee: Budgeting and reviewing of financial audits.

Danny Burns; Treasurer@aseg.org.au

Young Professionals committee: The organisation of events and supporting young professionals within the ASEG.

Megan Nightingale; ypadmin@aseg.org.au

Technical Standards committee: responsible for the development and maintenance of industry-wide standards to aid in data quality, interoperability and longevity

Tim Keeping; technical-standards@aseg.org.au

Membership committee: The Membership Committee is looking for people with great ideas to increase the membership of ASEG. The role entails some collation of membership numbers.

Leslie Atkinson; membership@aseg.org.au

Branch upcoming events

Details about ASEG events can be found on the ASEG website.

For a more complete calendar of events see Preview

Hi all,

Issue 5 of Exploration Geophysics is in the works and will come out soon. If you have not browsed Issue 4 of EG, please do, I am positive there is an enticing article to read.

For the keen amongst us, there is a batch of recently accepted articles, including some for the AEM special issue, please browse and see what is about to be published.

Dr Mark Lackie

Exploration Geophysics Editor

Mark.Lackie@mq.edu.au

The August issue of Preview is now available online.

This conference issue of Preview features a guide to the second Australasian Exploration Geoscience Conference (AEGC 2019), which is being held at Crown Perth in Perth, September 2 - 5. The AEGC 2019 is co-hosted by the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists, the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia, and incorporates the 27th ASEG Conference and Exhibition and the PESA West Australian Basin Symposium. An exciting list of presentations is on offer and all ASEG Members are encouraged to attend.

The AEGC 2019 programme as published in Preview was correct when we went to 'press', however the AEGC 2019 Conference Organising Committee has made a number of changes to that programme over the last week. The latest version of the programme is available at 2019.aegc.com.au. Conference attendees are advised to check that website for updates on a regular basis as more changes may be made.

As well as a guide to AEGC 2019, this issue of Preview features the latest news from all the geological surveys in Australia and contributions from our usual commentators. David Denham (Canberra observed) considers Australia's future, as described in the latest CSIRO National Outlook. Mike Hatch (Environmental geophysics) shares his pick of presentations being made at AEGC 2019. Terry Harvey (Minerals geophysics) muses about geophysical horses for mineral exploration courses. Mick Micenko (Seismic window) delves into machine learning before nominating his AEGC 2019 top five. Tim Keeping (Data trends) also reviews what the AEGC has to offer, and Ian James (Webwaves) warns readers about predatory publishing practices.

Enjoy!!

Lisa Worrall

Preview Editor

PreviewEditor@aseg.org.au

In August's Member Spotlight we get to know James Alderman, the secretary for the Queensland branch of ASEG.

1. What is your current role?

Senior Geophysicist in the Generative Team of Rio Tinto Exploration, Australasia Region. My time is split between technical and operational support to our exploration projects and working with the rest of the generative team on new opportunities and ideas.

2. For how long have you been a geophysicist?

Just over 14 years.

3. What do you like most about being a geophysicist?

The freedom to pursue ideas would be up there. I'm lucky to work in a team that is given the scope to generate and test ideas. Seeing new places in the world is a bonus as well.

4. If you weren't a geophysicist what would you be?

Between finishing school and going to University, I spent five months living on a beach in Greece teaching sailing and windsurfing. It was pretty hard to leave that behind; it wouldn't have taken much to still be there!

5. Tell us about your best field meal?

I spent a couple of years working on diamond exploration in Mali doing FIFO from the UK. Our Operations Manager managed to employee a French trained pastry chef as our cook - suffice to say, despite walking many km of ground magnetics and gravity surveying, I still managed to put on a lot of weight!

6. Your funniest or worst field memory?

Waking up in South Africa on a drill camp to the sound of rattling tea cups. Thought someone was making tea, but looked up to find a baboon chewing on our tea bags.

7. What do you do in your spare time?

I don't have much anymore with a three year old son, so most time when I'm home is spent with him. I have seen positive changes in the industry in the 15 years I have been around, that greater importance is put on family time and mental wellbeing. When I do have free time I try to keep fit and have been addicted to Crossfit for the last few years.

8. Where do you think exploration geophysics will head in the next 10-15 years?

True transition from bump hunting to integrated interpretation, particularly in the greenfield space, and so called mature exploration areas. The options for new mineral discoveries are to look deeper, or to see something that others have previously missed. Many areas thought to be well explored will likely prove to have not been. To find these type of targets surveys will have to continue to see deeper, at better resolution and for cheaper…

On the processing side, I see there will likely be some consolidation of software and greater use of open source platforms. For a long time hard rocks geophysicists have relied on a large number of different software products, many reliant on one or two key people to develop it. I don't see this as being sustainable longer term and new generations of students are tending towards open source, more collaborative approaches.

9. What aspect of geophysics do you enjoy most?

There's nothing better than getting hold of new data after spending months planning and executing a survey and seeing if what you expected (or hoped) is there. I think all geophysicists would like to be the one that gave a name to the anomaly that becomes the next world class mine.

10. Do you think AI will take over your job or will the human element remain vital to exploration successes?

I think the human element will remain key to exploration success. I think the use of machine learning and AI is just one important aspect of making the work we do more efficient. The other is improved compilations and cleansing of historic exploration data. The old adage rubbish in, rubbish out, is no more relevant than for exploration data.