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Outline of Experience in Uranium Exploration Neil Rutherford is a professional geologist and geochemist with over 30 years experience in the minerals exploration and mining industry, including the uranium industry. He is the Principal of Rutherford Mineral Resource Consultants, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists, a Fellow of the Association of Applied Geochemists and Member of the Society of Economic Geology. During the period 1980-1986 he was Electrolytic Zinc Company (EZ) representative for exploration joint venture activities with Geopeko on the Ranger and Barote areas in the Alligator River region. This included an independent review of ore controls at the Ranger mine on behalf of Energy Resources Australia Ltd. to gain new insights to controls of uranium mineralisation to apply within the region. During the period 1982-1984 he had a close association with exploration in the Coronation Hill region. He was also involved at this time in joint venture activities in the Woolner (Point Stuart) joint venture (Geopeko-EZ-CRAE) exploring to the west of the Kakadu Areas. He reviewed the project history, exploration and geology and assessed the uranium potential of the Turee Creek Prospect in Western Australia (held at the time by Noranda) and of the Westmoreland uranium field. In 1988 and 1989 he was contracted to manage exploration field activities relating to uranium exploration on behalf of Queensland Mines Limited in Western Arnhem Land about the Nabarlek uranium mine. During 1990 and 1991 he designed and undertook a field exploration program for PNC Exploration (Australia) Pty Ltd in their exploration tenements in sandstone covered plateau areas in Arnhem Land. He also undertook a regional evaluation study of Arnhem Land for uranium on behalf of PNC Exploration (Australia) Pty Ltd. using Landsat, air photography and ground observations based on new geological and structural models for the region. He initiated a series of research projects to define field mappable alteration attributes, geochemical halo signatures and applicability of both airborne and ground EM techniques to assist in exploration for uranium in the plateau sandstone covered areas. This included a joint research project with the CSIRO to evaluate potential new exploration applications for Pb isotope techniques for exploration for uranium under Kombolgie Formation cover rocks and in regional stream sediment sampling. All the major known uranium occurrences in the Alligator Rivers Province were used in the study. He presented a paper entitled: “Formation of unconformity-style uranium deposits in the Alligator Rivers and Westmoreland Provinces of Northern Australia: A more updated outlook” at the ASEG 8th Conference/GSA Exploration Symposium (1991 - Darling Harbour.) summarising the outcomes of much of this work. He has lectured at University of New South Wales Masters Course on Conceptual models in Exploration Geology (1992, 1993) on “Structure Controlled Unconformity-Style Uranium Deposits”. He has presented a Geochemical Workshop in conjunction with David Cohen (UNSW) on uranium exploration strategies for exploration in Arnhem Land to Cameco Australia Pty Ltd., Darwin, (2005) and has given specialised workshops on uranium exploration within both Australia and overseas (2006). He has recently undertaken both research and field studies of uranium occurrences in Australia (WA, NT & SA), Africa and Mongolia in a range of geological settings as part of his consultancy. Neil Rutherford’s expertise in uranium exploration includes field geological assessment of deposit settings, regolith studies, geochemical assessment of geological domains and detailed geochemical studies as well as project synthesis, data processing and evaluation. Neil Rutherford works closely with other associates who specialise in radiometrics and geophysics applicable to both uranium and to Cu-Au-U related mineralisation characteristic of the Curnamona and Gawler Provinces in South Australia and has undertaken studies in the Curnamona and equivalent terrains in the Cloncurry-Mt Isa district of NW Queensland. |
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