Best products from r/geologycareers

Oh, the stories I could tell about this subject. However, rather than get myself into trouble, I will give you a good book recommendation that chronicles the story of the search for diamonds in the Canadian Arctic. This covers some of the stuff you are asking.

• Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic by Kevin Krajick
  
  You’re basically familiar with the main components already on a how to become a junior. There’s a few different pathways to actually running a junior mining company, but they all basically fall into two categories:
  
  
• 1. be an entrepreneur
     
     
• 2. work for an entrepreneur
     
     I’ve in been in the business since the late 90’s and have worked with majors and juniors. While I have been a self-employed consultant at times, I don’t consider myself that much of risk taker to actually start an exploration company. I’ve been around enough of these personalities and talked with successful ones and not-so successful ones to provide some high-level advice.
     
     The tl;dr version is:
     
     
• 1. do some grassroots exploration; find something interesting
     
     
• 2. stake the claims
     
     
• 3. attend PDAC; talk to juniors with a geographic fit or commodity class to your property
     
     
• 4. get someone interested; sign a buy-in deal, where they invest into further exploration for an increasing ownership stake
     
     
• 5. sell off your majority stake in the property, but hold on to a royalty deal
     
     
• 6. rinse and repeat
     
     The best way I found to explain (and to relate) the junior exploration business is to think of it as a very niche branch of investing in real estate. No matter the technical details of a project, the end result is a land deal. Someone is investing capital for a piece of land that has the potential for higher economic value if developed (i.e. a mine is built).
     
     Now comparing the junior exploration industry to real estate brings into a comparison where investment capital comes from.
     
     
• Private money
  
  
• Public money
  
  Public money is basically most of the companies that set up a booth at PDAC. These companies are listed on the TSX or TSXV and are soliciting the public for investing capital by offering shares in their companies.
  
  Private money basically comes from all the wealth management groups or hedge funds. Look up the various companies that have set up shop on Bay Street.
  
  To access these sources of money isn’t straight forward. It does require some networking, which requires time. The other aspect is that you will need to find a lawyer that can help with drafting contracts and various other agreements.
  
  
  This is how I would approach this situation if I were a 22-year-old fresh geology grad, with the intent of owning my junior mining company.
  
  
  
• 1. Work 5 years; for a few different juniors on a few different projects. Save some money.
     
     
• 2. Take that saved money and the knowledge gained to find some prospective ground that you can stake a claim or buy into. With about $5000 to $10000 you can self-finance a small exploration program. Review the claims and geology on the various provincial websites. Find an area that might have had historic mining, historic exploration, similar geology to a new ore deposit model..etc. You could connect with a local prospector and strike up a deal. Offer your services as geologist for free for some type of back-end deal.
     
     
• 3. Through out this time period, continue networking. Become familiar some VP of Exploration of various companies. Seek out some gray-hair geologists. Maybe bug a former Thayler Lindsley or Bill Dennis award winner for advice.
     
     
• 4. Between networking and finding your “own project”, you should be able establish a connection with someone directly or who knows someone that would be willing to listen to your story on your project. That person will be your first investor and you’re off to the races.
     
     
• 5. You’ll also need to be an avid reader. You’ll need to pick up books on contract law, public markets, take some short courses at conferences, work on your public speaking.
     
     
     In terms of direct sources of information, Edumine.com has a lot of online coursework and webinars. I’ve taken a few and they are pretty decent. I wouldn’t spend too much money here, but if there’s a specific topic you want to learn more about, it might be worth the cost.
     
     
     Sedar.com; Every publicly traded company in the minerals business publishes a NI 43-101 report on a project. If you want to get some great background info, this is a good place to go. Look up a claim map, find the company name, go to their website, find their project name, look up the NI 43-101 on that project.
     
     Short Courses at Conferences; Roundup/PDAC/CIM and various provincial conferences will have short courses where you can get an infodump quickly on a specific topic. For instance at Roundup this year, there was a short course called “Capital Markets for Geologists”. Basically, it was a mini-mini-investment MBA for geologists in a two-day course.
     
     
     There’s another subset of this discussion I haven’t even touched. Many, many junior mining companies are simply shell companies. They are only setup for accounting purposes. People play the stock market game by moving projects in and out of companies, selling and buying shares, and even changing their company name to match the investing euphoria of the day. For example, add “Cobalt, Blockchain, or Cannabis” to your company name and watch your share price skyrocket.
     
     Anyway, there’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll pop back in periodically and see if anyone asks anymore questions.

Shoes:

1. Lowa / I went with their Renegade model, but depending on your local climate, something else might make more sense.
   
   
2. I gave Vasque shoes two tries, both pairs split at the seams on the inside near the front of the foot. Total crap.
   
   
3. I think Merrell is ~okay. I haven't tried higher-end models. Their cheaper models usually last me one field season, tops, but they for sure don't break like the Vasques do.
   
   
4. If you're getting good shoes, make sure to treat them well, too. This wax worked well on my leather, and I treated with silicone afterwards.
   
   You'll have to keep re-treating, and watch out for issues like gumboot (clogged leather pores). I've also read that treating with liquid oil like mink instead of wax can weaken the leather by hydrating it and making it, yes, more supple -- but also softer.
   
   Pants:
   
   Ditch jeans. KUHL makes the best field pants I've tried. They're more durable, lighter, and are generally very good. Go to an REI to see how different versions fit. KUHL makes jeans and similar pants, too, but their lighter field pants are much better in most conditions.
   
   Socks...too many options, none of them stood out for me. As long as you have enough pairs of thick hiking socks and can cycle through clean pairs every day or so, you should be fine. Synthetic socks typically dry faster than wool. That's about the only major / consistent difference in my experience.

It’s pollen season. If you are outdoors, pollen will cause allergies. Sure, dust can too. But pollen is a much bigger offender.


And the dust masks that people here are suggesting aren’t effective against microscopic pollen. You would need a mask that seals against your face to keep the stuff out of your respiratory system.

Respirators work best, but you wouldn’t want to wear those unless you’ve been fit test and can pass the medical exam.

So, Noeth safety came up with a beautiful alternative

See amazon link. It seals against your face, but isn’t bulky like a respirator and doesn’t need cartridges. The filter itself is replaceable. If dust is your trigger, combined with pollen, this is what I suggest.

https://www.amazon.com/N95-NON-OIL-PARTICULATEFILTERS-CFR-1-RESP/dp/B00190L7WU

Hope this helps.

Whilst I don't know where you could learn online, I highly recommend looking up publicly available field courses in basic geology. You would learn alot and be able to go out hiking!

If you're interested in sedimentary geology, Gary Nichol's book is excellently written, organised, and I would say is very accessible by the layman.

I'd also recommend the different Geology Field Guide Books as they are small, easily looked through and designed to be taken into the field. They have one for sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic and structural I think, very good books that would definitely get you through at least the first 2 years of an undergrad bachelors in Geology.

EDIT: on further investigation I think I meant the Field Description book series. Either look pretty good for a basic grounding.

EDIT 2: I also forgot to mention they're relatively cheap compared to most academic texts!

Outcomes of the Life of a Geologist is an excellent narrative introduction to geology that I think would pique your interest.

For a more rigorous or sciency introduction, you could look at intro geology textbooks. this was the one my course used (now in 10th edition).

But perhaps a better way to approach this, depending on where you're going to school, might be to just try to learn some things about the local geology. This will help you to get more out of your courses, if they have field components. The local rocks can be a gateway to all kinds of interesting topics, since they are marked by all the crazy shit that's happened to them over thousands to millions of years. For example, lots of rocks in New Hampshire have striations from the last glacial maximum. Let me know if you would like help finding sources/guiding an inquiry in this vein.

PS don't let this subreddit scare you in terms of careers. But DO take the excellent advice here in mind moving forward. You will have many opportunities to distinguish yourself to professors/employers through courses, internships, supervised research...take advantage of these!

Best of luck

I did field camp at sac state. It was a lot of fun, I highly recommend it. But it can be a lot of work and stressful at times. The entire geology program at sac state is very field heavy so by the time you get to Sr. Field the professors expect you to work independently. So if you have experience mapping, identifying different rocks, and interpreting their structural relationships to each other you have nothing to worry about. If I was you I’d make sure day one to know the geologic timescale and IUGS igneous rock classification by heart. That stuff will come in handy. Also I recommend getting some kind of field reference book. This is the one I used: https://www.amazon.com/Geoscience-Handbook-Data-Sheets-revised/dp/0922152845. Feel free to DM me if you have any specific questions. And have fun at field camp, it really is a great and memorable time!

I would get her some good geologic maps (in poster size) to put on the wall. Since you are in California I would recommend this one from the CGS. Additionally, the North American Tapestry of Time and Terrain is a beautiful map that you can order from the GSA. In my opinion, the best global geologic map is the GCMW which you can order here.

The great thing about geologic maps is that they are loaded with information and you can study them for hours on end. If your daughter is really interested in geology she can teach herself a lot by looking at maps, asking questions (e.g. why is there a bend in this mountain range), and then researching that question. Even just studying the legends on the maps is useful since it will give her an idea of what kinds of rock are typically found together.

Also, pick up a copy of Geology Underfoot in Southern California.

> The current Curiosity mission is all about the geology of Mars, after all!

Yes! That mission is what really sparked her interest! I often show her the new pictures and we're both so in awe of the fact we're looking at the geology of a totally different planet!

Thanks for the book recommendation! Looks like it's on Amazon :)

Read the entire regreview guides, ideally twice. If anything is confusing then it may help to read this book: Engineering Geology: An Environmental Approach (2nd Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0131774034/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_iAr9BbR1ZAY8R

Also, if you are in a state like California that has major laws that matter to geologists happening right now.... SGMA comes to mind... Then know a little about it.

Good luck!

I think your probably fine then! Also since your not too far from Geonics HQ they might have a sales guy come and train you on it for a few hours if your buying one (man they are $$$!). Again, just brush up on it before you go charge. Nothing makes me more deer in the headlights than putting a figure in a report that I dont understand. Saying the machine spit it out is not a valid answer!
 


This is the best book IMO for readability and not making you derive curl-curl equations or being bogged down by stuff no one cares about: here. I think 20 bucks used is well worth it.

We've been using ruggedized android phones (example) in the field for a number of things, like soil sampling data management. Not sure what software we run.

We've also been using things like the Bobcat Xplore tablet for logging data when the data logging apps require windows (often the case in geophysics). We have our fair share of Panasonic toughbooks and toughpads as well (for example, for logging ice thickness data from a GPR).

Honestly, I'd go cheap and consider them consumables. Get your IT department to lock them down after the software has been installed for the specific purpose they will serve. People are rough on cheap and expensive alike. And in the field, idiots will try to use them for things they weren't designed for. Downloading movies. Watching porn. Lock them down so the idiots can't break the software at least. They can still drop them in the lake...

Maybe more the all leather ones: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T3IQUDG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_x5nsybABVS7W9

The Detroit mids are really comfy, but mine were not waterproof like advertised. Customer service took care of it though and I ended up getting leather ones that have been great.

Was doing some just the other day in a coffee shop... actually can be quite invaluable when you combine with kinematics (if you're a structural person).... found that axial planar cleavage + oblique/normal faulting was offsetting a mineralized zone that had been mined/explored for decades... nobody had really done any structural work at all (this is more common than you'd think, I've found!).

The USGS maps had faults where there was nothing, and nothing where there were BIG, obvious faults. I did a pretty basic analysis and my mode lined up pretty well with the regional stuff that's well documented, with some local nuance thrown in. It makes sense.

So... yes, they're quite useful.

This is a good, quick book for reference:

https://www.amazon.com/Stereographic-Projection-Techniques-Geologists-Engineers/dp/0521535824

> Really, I just want to work in pretty country and find gold

Yeah that would be awesome. At least in the US you'd get to do a lot of work in NE Nevada and Alaska.

I know you've been working environmental for quite some time, how are you with mineral ID (sulfides and ig/met minerals specifically)? Did you take an economic geo classes? If you want to drop $100 on a text book the Geology of Ore Deposits is the quintessential economic geology text.

One thing to do is look at who has written authoritative books on the topic. For example, Dr. John Ridley just came out with a very well respected new book called Ore Deposit Geology. He teaches at Colorado State University.

Currently using this:

http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Know-ArcGIS-Desktop-ArcEditor/dp/158948083X
(the pdf version is easily found online)

Esri offer a free 60 day trial, so that's cool.

This is the portable charger I use and I really like it.

https://www.amazon.com/Solar-Power-Charger-Flashlight-Splashproof/dp/B07FDXDB3W/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1549238897&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=solar+power+bank+portable+charger&psc=1

Also Ore Deposit Geology by Ridley

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1107022223/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_r88KBb0D42R5X


It's good for basics. It's not terribly long or overly technical but it's thorough and covers most type of deposits. And it won't break the bank.

Here is the mobile version of your link