SEG Mentoring Program Discussion

Hosts

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Jesse Clark

Barrick

Jesse has worked various roles through mining, resource, and exploration over the past seven years focused on collaborative approaches to discovering value in complex metallogenic provinces and accurately characterizing resource risk and uncertainty. He received a B.Sc (Hons., first-class) from the University of Adelaide in 2014, and a M.Sc (Economic Geology) within the National Master's Program based at the University of Tasmania CODES in 2019. Jesse began his career with BHP in 2015 within the global graduate program, followed by various roles, including most recently as the Principal Geologist for BHP Olympic Dam operations. His accomplishments at Olympic Dam include leading the team that developed the first, fully integrated 3D geological model for the entire Olympic Dam deposit, including a revised structural architecture for the complex orebody. He has contributed to several publications, numerous conferences and IOCG workshops.

Jesse is currently the Lead Geologic Modeler and Chief Geologist – Cortez District with Barrick Gold. His focus is to support Nevada Gold Mines to create long-term value by unravelling the 4-D geologic evolution of the enigmatic Carlin-type mineral system towards the creation of world class geologic models. He is a passionate member of the Society of Economic Geologists, serving on several committees, as well as being an active mentor.

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Benjamín Larenas

Universidad de Concepción, Chile

Benjamín has worked closely with the mining explosives industry since he achieved a B.Sc. degree in Geology in 2018 from University of Concepción, Chile. His thesis project involved studying the interactions between common ammonium nitrate explosives used in mine blasting and the iron sulfide minerals present in porphyry-copper deposits, in order to identify the conditions that might cause a spontaneous reaction inside the blast holes prior to loading. Since then, he's been working on different projects related to the interaction of explosives and rock mass for his company, which has propelled his interests toward a better understanding of the life-cycle of a mine, from discovery until closure.

Panelists

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Elizabeth Holley

CSM

Elizabeth is an Associate Professor at Colorado School of Mines, where her Mining Geology Research Group works on an exciting array of problems in economic geology, mining geology, and sustainability (postdoc/research associate positions available!). Active projects include the origins of sedimentary rock-hosted and magmatic-hydrothermal gold deposits, critical element supply for the zero-carbon future, and the social and environmental context of large- and small-scale mining. The team's work is currently funded by the mining industry, the National Science Foundation, CDC NIOSH, and the Center for Mining Sustainability.


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Dante Huff

CSM

Dante received her B.Sc. in Earth and Planetary Sciences from McGill University ('11) and is about to defend her Ph.D. at Colorado School of Mines ('21), where she studied the relationship between magmatism and sedimentary-rock hosted Au deposits in northern Nevada. She has previously worked for junior exploration companies on both brownfields and greenfields exploration programs, with experience in VMS, banded iron greenstone, and Carlin-type deposits. Before returning to graduate school, she worked for four years as an environmental consultant in northern Alberta.


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Keenan Jennings

BHP

Keenan has more than 30 years' experience in exploration and has lived and worked on 5 continents. A graduate from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, Keenan started his career in 1991 with MIM Exploration in Australia, before a move to Chile in 1994. This led to an extended period of work in Latin America, covering copper, iron ore, gold, zinc, lead, and industrial minerals evaluation. Transferring to Anglo American, he joined the head office in London in 2005, participating in setting strategy and budgets for global exploration activities.

Keenan then moved to become Rio Tinto's Exploration Manager for China and Mongolia, and then General Manager for Geosciences at the world-class Oyu Tolgoi project. He returned to London at the end of 2012, setting up his own consultancy, before another move to Chile in 2016 to lead a tech start-up. Keenan joined BHP in early 2018, and in 2020 became the global Vice President for Metals Exploration for the BHP Group of Companies.


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Thiago Oliveira

BHP

Thiago is a geoscientist with over 13 years' experience, who has worked across a broad range of the exploration cycle in multiple commodities including industrial minerals, iron ore, manganese, gold, copper and recently nickel. After graduating from the Federal University of Bahia, Thiago began his career exploring for gold in the challenging region of Amazonia before joining BHP in 2011 where he began exploring for Cu-porphyries first in Chile and later for the Global Generative team throughout Panama, Ecuador, Peru, the US and Eastern Europe. Early in 2018, Thiago relocated to Australia, and shifted focus to IOCG-style exploration and was fortunate to be an integral part of the team that discovered the Oak Dam mineral system, leading a small technical team through 3 phases of drilling to successfully hand the project over to the operating Asset. Most recently, Thiago manages a small team of geoscientists managing a portfolio of copper and nickel projects across WA and SA.