Discovery to Recovery

Namibia is a country of diverse geology and mineral deposits that is also embracing the green energy transition. The diversity of critical minerals and metals and the expansion of green energy sources for mining are all exciting for the future of Namibia.
Namibia is 'elephant country' in more than one way!
The Society of Economic Geologists is thrilled to collaborate with our partners the Geoscience Council of Namibia and the Geological Society of Namibia to host the SEG 2024 conference in Windhoek, September 27-30.
This episode explores the geology and mineral deposits, from the Proterozoic to the present and the mineral potential that exists throughout the country. We hope you will listen in and then join us in Windhoek in a few months!

Anna Nguno, Deputy Director at the Geological Survey of Namibia (GSN), Ministry of Mines and Energy and co-chair of SEG 2024 introduces the episode with a conference teaser: what to expect at the conference, the main themes, technical sessions, field trips, and more.
Geological Mineral and Information System - Namibia (Geological Survey of Namibia)

Next Roy Miller, previous Director of the Geological Survey of Namibia, provides an overview of the regional geology and tectonic history of Namibia, including the mineral deposits and economic potential of the various belts.

• Paleoproterozoic basement rocks contain the 1.2 Haib porphyry deposit.
• Mesoproterozoic rocks in the country are divided into 3 complexes, none of which contain extensive mineralization.
• The Neoproterozoic to Cambrian Damara Supergroup is the most extensive succession in Namibia, contains a wealth of different types of ore deposits, and is found in three belts: 1) the Damara belt in central Namibia; 2) the Kaoko belt in the northwest; and 3) the Gariep in the southwest
• The Carboniferous to Jurassic Karoo Supergroup contains thin lenses of coal and sandstone aquifers.
• Cretaceous continental breakup resulted in Etendeka flood basalts.
• At the end of the Cretaceous the region became semi-arid and the Kalahari Desert began to form. In wetter periods, the Orange River flooded and deposited diamonds from inland to the coast, 90% of which are gem quality and mined today by De Beers.
• From 21 million years ago, sand began to accumulate in major dune fields.

Finally, Mary Barton, Principal Geoscientist at Odikwa Geoservices, talks about her introduction to the field of geology and what a day in the life of a Namibian greenfields exploration geologist looks like. She discusses above ground risks in the country (including lions and cheetahs!), the placer diamond mining industry, and what opportunities the green transition might bring to the country.

Theme music is Confluence by Eastwinds

eastwindsmusic.com

SEG 2024 will be in Windhoek, Namibia! Come join us in a country known for its spectacular and diverse geology 27- 30 September, 2024.

There’s one concept everyone in the geosciences can’t stop talking about – data. Whether we’re collecting it, analyzing it, or cleaning it, the work never seems to end.
As we face challenges like deposits becoming deeper and harder to find, how do we make sure we’re leveraging data in the right ways, to support us now and in the future?
The first part is using the right data management practices when we’re collecting data – whether historical or new. Joanne Wood shares how KoBold Metals is approaching data intensive approaches to exploration, and her best practices in data management.
Of course, we also need tools to manipulate and analyze this data once collected. Lindsey Heagy (Ph.D., UC Berkeley) talks about open source software development, and how it contributes to innovation and reproducibility in the geosciences.
And once our data has been manipulated, perhaps we need to pass it onto another team to use. Usually, this is a long and frustrating process involving scripts and error checking. But the Global Mining Guidelines Group has introduced an open standard to combat this – the Open Mining Format (OMF). Franklin Koch (Integration Lead, Seequent) shares why interoperability matters, and his experience writing the first iteration of OMF.
Theme music is Confluence by Eastwinds
eastwindsmusic.com

SEG 2024 will be in Windhoek, Namibia! Come join us in a country known for its spectacular and diverse geology 27- 30 September, 2024.

Welcome to the second season of Discovery to Recovery! How can we use 'the human factor' to create better outcomes in mining and exploration? Nicole Doucette is host, bringing us two powerful, personal stories about navigating jobs and careers, in mining engineering and economic geology. The first is a conversation with Kal-Kidan, a mining engineering student in Australia, whose parents immigrated there from Ethiopia. The second conversation is with Pedro Maciel Garcia (Professor of Economic Geology, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Brazil and Fellow of SEG).
The stories are wide-ranging, covering what is working and what could be better when companies and institutions address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. What impact is there on your career when you are a person of color in geoscience and mining? How are companies and other organizations being more inclusive? These honest conversations range from the personal to the role of geo-ethics in mining and academia. Navigating issues of identity are challenging, but perhaps we are all getting a little bit better at creating better environments that foster diversity through equity and inclusion.
Theme music is Confluence by Eastwinds
eastwindsmusic.com

SEG 2024 will be in Windhoek, Namibia! Come join us in a country known for its spectacular and diverse geology 27- 30 September, 2024.

Exploration and mining are human endeavors, relying on teams who work in the field and offices globally. The human factor in our work is also critical to establishing strong and meaningful relationships with local communities. So should those teams of professionals include social scientists, and what is the role of the exploration geologist? The answers are complicated, but this episode is packed with information. We talk to Monica Ospina (O-Trade) and to Susan Joyce (On Common Ground) to learn more about what impact exploration has on communities and where we can improve. We also explore what influences our practices, is it regulatory frameworks, investors, or the companies themselves?
Next we check in on a community engagement process – an open house held by Geoscience BC in a small town in British Columbia, Canada. The purpose of the meeting was to share the results and implications of a regional geophysical survey with people working and living on the north end of Vancouver Island. We went to the open house to see the process in action and hear from Richard Truman about why community engagement is important for a publicly funded research oriented organization.
Lastly, community is important for sharing science as well, so when as economic geologists we lost our ability to gather at conferences and seminars due to the pandemic, two early career scientists, Alannah Brett and Tom Belgrano, took action. A tweet and an email later, the Ore Deposits Hub – an online platform for seminars - was founded. Three months later they have established a diverse and inclusive community to share knowledge of ore deposits.
Theme music is Confluence by Eastwinds
eastwindsmusic.com

SEG 2024 will be in Windhoek, Namibia! Come join us in a country known for its spectacular and diverse geology 27- 30 September, 2024.

Join us for system-scale thinking in geoscience and a view of a more sustainable world from magmatic -sulfide sources of PGEs and Ni to innovative mineral processing work and technology metals.

Steve Barnes (CSIRO) has spent a career working on magmatic sulfide deposits, leading him to some big thinking over multiple length and time scales.  He talks about how his ideas were formed by key individuals and circumstances and where the multi-scale system thinking might lead us in studying other geological processes.  We also talk to Steve about the supply of PGEs and what might affect the market in the future, from the impact of lower grade deposits to co-production of other base metals.

Our second story centres on the one hundred-year old process used to extract metals from sulfides – froth flotation.  Kathryn Hadler from Imperial College London introduces the key concepts and then poses some important questions about what the next steps are in mineral processing.  How can we address the issues of what mineral processing needs to look like in 30 or 40 years, and not just the immediate challenges? 

Thinking about the future leads to a wide ranging discussion with Frances Wall, Professor at the Cambourne School of Mines - from the definition of critical metals to the more descriptive technology metals, sourcing REEs from carbonatites, life cycle assessment and how it all can come together in the circular economy, if geoscientists are involved.

For Steve Barnes lecture - check out the Ore Deposits Hub:  oredepositshub.com

Technology Metals for a Green Future can be found on:  futurelearn.com

Theme music is Confluence by East Winds. www.eastwindsmusic.com