Industry

Title: Mis-adventures of a Mathematician in Industry

Presenter: Audrey Addison

Date: Thursday, 5th May 2022

Time: 12:00 PM Canberra (AEST)

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Zuj0cfuZTT6EgoH9QGm3fw

Abstract:

What does a scientist do?  That question was at the top of my mind as I was finishing up my PhD in Mathematics in 2014.  My plans of teaching at the college level were thwarted by the two body problem, so I turned my focus to industry instead.  What followed was a series of positions in three disparate industries: Oil and Gas, Industrial Engineering and Tech where I found that the more things changed, the more they stayed the same.  In this talk, I’ll share my personal experiences in industry and as a military officer, demonstrate how a mathematician or scientist might find a niche in industry and summarize some lessons learned. 

Bio: 

Audrey Addison has held varied responsibilities throughout her career and has a PhD in Mathematics. She was a Rescue Coordination Center Controller with the US 11th Air Force; Intelligence Officer, US 176th Wing; Research Geophysicist, Chevron, and a Numerical Analysis Software Engineer, Siemens. She currently works as a Software Engineer at Google.

Title: Current Space and Satellite technology

Presenter: Mark Covington - Geoimage, Enterprise Solutions Manager.

Date: Tuesday 26th April 2022

Time: 17.15 – 19.00

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0YOmEKwtQ325qUukPVVczQ

Abstract:

Last century, Man set foot on the moon and shortly after, in 1972 the first satellite was launched with the express intent of monitoring our planet's landmasses. Over the following decades, technology advanced and the applications for using Earth Observation also grew. In 2022, Satellites no longer need to weigh the same as a sedan and cost a billion dollars to design, build and launch. With advances in technology leading to miniaturisation and the arrival of ride sharing launches, space is now accessible to almost anyone with passion, a good idea and a pitch to venture capitalists. In this presentation, I will take us on a brief history of satellite evolution and lead us into a discussion on using Short Wave Infrared and other wavelengths for mineral exploration. We will look at using tri-stereo optical imagery to generate more accurate DEMs, discuss how radar can be used to see geological structures and how the phase component of radio waves can be used to measure changes at the scale of mm, and how this method can be used for monitoring hydrocarbon basins and mine induced subsidence. Finally, I will offer a glimpse of the future, of some of the new satellite startup companies and how those technologies will change our view of the world.

Title: ACT AGM + Tech Talk: Airborne Gravity and gravity gradiometry for a high resolution national gravity grid of Australia

Presenter: Dr Mark Dransfield – Airborne Gravity Consultant

Date: Thursday, 28th April (to be followed by the ACT ASEG AGM)

Time: 1500

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YxPHm9hIQR-FZDUx-8JEog

Abstract:

In 2019, for the first time, the National Gravity Grid included gravity observations from ground gravity, airborne gravimetry and gradiometry, and satellite observations. This is a significant step towards my personal dream of a national gravity dataset sampled at a spacing similar to aeromagnetics' 400 m or better.

One of the many questions to be addressed for the next national gravity grid is the subject of this talk.

With data from such disparate sources, how do we best merge the data into one gravity map to preserve the spatial resolution, accuracy, and precision, and to provide a product of maximum value to the communities that will use it?

I will discuss some of the alternatives and attempt to summarise the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Title: The use of machine learning in processing remote sensing data for mineral exploration

Presenter: Dr. Ehsan Farahbakhsh

Date: Wednesday 20th April 2022

Time: 1800-1900

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2iHaItV9Sk201SP4ZFkPpw

Overview:

The decline of the number of newly discovered mineral deposits and increase in demand for critical minerals in recent years has led exploration geologists to look for more efficient and innovative methods for processing different data types at each stage of mineral exploration. As a primary step, various features, such as lithological units, alteration types, structures, and indicator minerals, are mapped to aid decision-making in targeting ore deposits. Different types of remote sensing datasets, such as satellite and airborne data, make it possible to overcome common problems associated with mapping geological features. The rapid increase in the volume of remote sensing data obtained from different platforms has encouraged scientists to develop advanced, innovative, and robust data processing methodologies. Machine learning methods can help process a wide range of remote sensing datasets and determine the relationship between components such as the reflectance continuum and features of interest. These methods are robust in processing spectral and ground truth measurements against noise and uncertainties. In this presentation, I will provide a brief introduction to remote sensing data types and review the implementation and adaptation of some popular and recently established machine learning methods for processing different types of remote sensing data aiming at detecting various ore deposit types. I will also review our recent studies on combining remote sensing data and machine learning methods for mapping different geological features that are critical for providing mineral potential maps.

Bio:

Dr. Ehsan Farahbakhsh is a Research Associate in the EarthByte Group, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney. He holds a PhD degree in Mining Engineering - Mineral Exploration from Tehran Polytechnic. He has been involved in several projects as an exploration geologist or spatial data analyst for the exploration industry, primarily for providing prospectivity maps of various ore deposit types from regional to deposit scale. His research interests are multidimensional mineral prospectivity modeling, geological remote sensing, geostatistics, and the application of data science and UAVs in mineral exploration.

ASEG WA - April Tech Night event
Date & Venue:
Thursday 28th April 2022
5:30pm drinks, talk start 6.00pm
The Celtic Club
48 Ord St,
West Perth WA

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/aseg-wa-branch-event-april-2022-tech-night-tickets-315266048237

The WA Branch of the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists invites you to attend our upcoming ASEG WA Branch Tech night event at Celtic Club, West Perth. Networking drinks will take place before the talk, with snacks and drinks provided. Free street parking is available in West Perth after 5pm. It is a condition of entry to the venue that you must provide proof of COVID vaccination and face-masks must be worn at all times except eating/drinking.

but still with the usual snacks and drinks provided. Note that there is plenty of public transportation, and, if need be, free parking is available. The venue has wheelchair accessibility. The details of the speech title and the author's bio are provided below.

Speech title: Predicting Intrusion locations in porphyry terrains from a fusion of Geophysical and Geochemical data
Speaker: Steve Kuhn, Senior Geoscientist with Fortescue Metals Group

Talk summary: 

There are many ways to target a porphyry system: For example, the Phyllic and inner propylitic halo is chargeable… if shallow enough to pass current and where widely disseminated and not restricted to veins. They’re magnetic highs, lows, remnant, non-magnetic, neither, or masked by a mass of variably magnetic andesite. Source intrusions can produce a gravity low, if not obscured by cover depth and density, weathering intensity and lack of contrast with background rocks. Near-surface, porphyries or their associated epithermal expressions can be amenable to radiometric or spectral methods, and a range of geochemical sampling or mapping strategies, which come with their own complications when such a system is complicated by weathering, topography and signal mixing with the surrounding volcanic pile and country rock. In other words, simple rules don’t hold.
The usual approach (and the right one!) is to explore all avenues, with multiple datasets supporting the presence of a mineralised system. In this talk, an approach is offered to augment the conventional workflow, focussing on one aspect of the problem: Identifying and locating source intrusions. Using a machine learning algorithm, selected specifically for the ability to deal with highly variable, non-linear geophysical and geochemical signatures. The benefit of this method isn’t speed or accuracy, rather it offers a quantitative robustness to the whole process and the ability to assess every step of the process: what data did we really need, how confident can we really be that intrusion is really at location x and what was the probability of an intrusion at location y where another rock type was ultimately predicted?
 

Speaker Bio:
Steve started as an exploration geologist at the St Ives gold mine in 2007: looking after over 25,000m of drilling as part of the team that took the 1Moz Athena and Hamlet deposits from discovery to first resource, while living in Kalgoorlie for 2 years. From 2010 to 2013 Steve worked as an exploration geophysicist with Gold Fields Growth and International Projects. After a few years back at school, Steve joined Fortescue Metals Group in early 2018 as a Senior Geophysicist.
Steve has worked on a wide array of porphyry, epithermal, orogenic, and Sed-hosted Cu projects from major mining provinces including Far Southeast (Philippines), Taldy Bulak (Kyrgyzstan), Cerro Chucapacca (Peru), Solaris Norte (Chile), Damang (Ghana), Woodjam (British Columbia), Athena, Hamlet and Invincible (St Ives camp WA) and Sentinel/Enterprise (Zambia) in addition to numerous early-stage projects.
Steve has a B.Sc. (Hons), Grad Cert and Ph.D. from CODES, has clocked over a thousand days in the field and has a soft spot for potential field and IP acquisition and modelling, conventional and machine assisted mineral exploration and targeting; defining the uncertainties/redundancies in geoscience data and modelling; and generally pulling things apart to learn how they work. Steve is currently a Senior Geoscientist with Fortescue Metals Group, focussed on advanced target generation in the international projects group.

REGISTRATION and RSVP are REQUIRED by the end of 25th April to give our hosts at Celtic Club enough time to properly set up their venue. ASEG WA Branch would like to give thanks to sponsors for their continuous support.

Please email wasecretary@aseg.org.au with any queries or for additional information. Kindly rsvp in the below link to get a spot as seats are limited. We are looking forward to seeing you there.