Mining a wealth of opportunity undersea
by Rebecca Gill
In
an era where the resources sector is keeping the economy afloat, it's
hard to imagine a time when geologists struggled to find work.
But with the current resurgence of mining, there are high times ahead for geologists - and one of those riding the wave of the new commodities boom is UniSA graduate Justin Baulch.
Almost 10 years after graduating from a Bachelor of Geology (Hons), Baulch finds himself in a top management position with a world-class international mining company.
As Vice President of exploration at Nautilus Minerals Inc, Baulch forms part of the first team to commercially explore volcanically active areas on the sea floor of the south-west Pacific Ocean for copper and gold.
"In these active volcanic areas, hot metal-rich volcanic fluids mix with cold sea water, causing the metals to rapidly crystallise as sulphides. These are similar to deposits now being mined on land, however, the ones on the sea floor have much higher metal grades and because they sit on top of the seabed, are fairly simple to find," Baulch said.
This sounds fascinating but Baulch's profession has made him accustomed to such novelty. While working at Western Australia's Granny Smith mine, he was part of a team that unearthed the largest gold deposit in Australia for 15 years.
A modest student life in Adelaide may be a far cry from eureka moments and mysterious undersea treks, but Baulch nevertheless looks back on his UniSA days fondly.
"I wouldn't have got here without my undergraduate degree. When I was straight out of Uni on a mining site in WA, I had solid geology skills to get me through those challenging early career years. I also formed strong networks, and I still keep in touch with my student friends today, despite them scattering to different parts of the world," he said.
Baulch acknowledges that the industry has changed a lot since he graduated.
"When I was a student, I never imagined I would be exploring in the deep ocean. But we constantly need more metals, and 70 per cent of the earth is covered in water, so it makes sense.
"Nautilus is also looking at exploring the sites in a manned underwater vessel later this year. These deep-diving submersibles are generally used for research purposes, so this would be a first for commercial mineral exploration.
"The prospect of manning a submersible 1500 metres undersea is slightly daunting, but we'll deal with that when we get to it," Baulch said.
While scouring volcanoes sounds like a volatile job, he says it isn't as dangerous as it seems.
"These are highly considered projects. We gather data, search for targets and then locate the deposits. Our exploration programs don't just concentrate on the geology. On our most recent program we had a crew of 65 people on board - geologists, geophysicists, environmental scientists, biologists, oceanographers, engineers - you name it."
UniSA offers geology as a major in the Bachelor of Science.
For undergraduate and honours enquiries please contact
Dr Bob Wiltshire, +61 8 830 23178 or email
robert.wiltshire@unisa.edu.au
For postgraduate enquiries contact Dr Don Cameron, +61 8 830 23128 or email donald.cameron@unisa.edu.au