On a more personal note…
During the summer of
1979 I worked as a summer student for Chevron Canada Minerals in
western Newfoundland. A young, aspiring mining geologist, my job
involved prospecting for lead-zinc mineralization characteristic
of the Mississippi Valley Type Deposits found in Appalachia.
With my spray bottle
of zinc oxide in hand, I zapped virtually every Ordovician carbonate
outcrop I came across, looking for the telltale signs of mineralization.
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During the summer of
1979 I worked as a summer student for Chevron Canada Minerals in
western Newfoundland. A young, aspiring mining geologist, my job
involved prospecting for lead-zinc mineralization characteristic
of the Mississippi Valley Type Deposits found in Appalachia.
With my spray bottle
of zinc oxide in hand, I zapped virtually every Ordovician carbonate
outcrop I came across, looking for the telltale signs of mineralization.
That summer, I was lucky
enough to go underground at the Daniel’s Harbour lead-zinc
mine. The dolomitized host rock at the mine was heavily karsted
and brecciated — a recipe for enhanced mineralization.
Given the extreme karsting,
the mine would have flooded had the water pumps failed. In the dark
— save the narrow corridor illuminated by my headlamp — I reflected
on this as the underground river of swirling waters approached the
tops of my rubber boots.
The samples I collected
from the mine formed the basis of my bachelor’s dissertation
— a fluid inclusion study designed to pinpoint the temperatures
of the hydrothermal brines as they entered the host limestone rock,
creating zebra dolomites and collapse breccias, and precipitating
economic deposits of galena and sphalerite. During my dissertation,
I noted the presence of globs of bitumen in the rocks and thin sections,
and pondered their meaning.
Imagine my surprise,
two decades later, when my geology professor at Dalhousie University
mentioned that my mining thesis had been copied by several oil companies
as part of their initial hydrocarbon assessments of western Newfoundland.