Geologists are colloquially known as ‘rock lickers’ or ‘rock doctors’.

They’re not known as ‘software smoochers’, ‘hardware huggers’ or ‘GPS kissers’.

The distinction, from an industry leader, is a lesson for young geos.

That lesson is, ‘stay grounded’. This was in the face of a more difficult discovery environment, the plethora of technical tools and the ever-present herd mentality. 

The art of Geology being a tactile and intuitive profession was still relevant said exploration geologist and University of Queensland Adjunct Professor Dan Wood.

Professor Wood who finished his corporate life as Newcrest Mining Executive General Manager-Exploration in 2008, recently addressed the Queensland Exploration Council.

His message was that discovery was getting increasingly more difficult and future resources will be located in what he calls the ‘deeper-earth’ environment at 500 – 2,000m. 

It presented new challenges for geoscientists, Professor Wood said.

“The trick is to basically think like an ore body, and what does that mean for what we’ll see in the rocks?” He said. “… if you look closely enough, you’ll probably see evidence, but it will be subtle and you have to observe it and interpret it.”

 “That’s why young geologists need to be in the field, chipping rocks and thinking about what the rocks are possibly telling them. As the legendary head of exploration for CRA (precursor to Rio Tinto) in the 1960s and ‘70s, Haddon King, wrote – ‘The Rocks Speak”.

“Just don’t go out to log what’s the rock type, look at the mineralization that is present, look at the alteration, look at tiny mineralized veins and veinlets, that’s the key, as these veins contain evidence of what might be deeper down.”

Citing Newcrest’s Cadia-Ridgeway gold-copper mine near Orange in New South Wales, Professor Wood said the ore body could have been described as a ‘leap of faith’ had it not been for subtle evidence signposting its eventual discovery.

“I believe you can detect Ridgeway in individual gold values down holes one to two kilometres away from the deposit. And Ridgeway is only 200 meters by 200 meters in plan, so if it were half a kilometre by half a kilometre in size, the evidence of its presence should be bigger. 

While acknowledging the contribution of technology to new discovery, Professor Wood said the ground told the better story, but it has to be interpreted.

But, to do this, he said it needed intuition combined with sight, smell, touch … and taste.