Alternative business models in mineral exploration and mining can build value for communities, benefit resource companies and influence perceptions in our industry. This episode highlights two innovative companies who are changing the business of mining: Nations Royalty and VRIFY.

Nations Royalty, a TSXV-listed royalty company, is focused on creating royalty diversification for indigenous people. Kody Penner, VP of Corporate Development at Nations Royalty, joined host Halley Keevil to explain the background and the business model. First, he tells his own story as an indigenous person growing up surrounded by British Columbia’s mining industry. The company, Nations Royalty, is the first indigenous-owned mining royalty company, and their indigenous ownership and management make them unique. He elaborates on how they balance corporate goals with indigenous goals and values, how they are creating wealth for indigenous groups, and what is next for the company in the future.

Next, Steve de Jong, CEO of VRIFY, talks about the company’s history and how they came to their current business model as an AI-focused mineral exploration and software service provider. Launching at PDAC in 2024 with just 4 clients, VRIFY now has 30 clients and gains 5-7 new clients per month. Steve discusses how their team of geoscientists and machine learning experts utilize every scrap of data from a company in order to build predictive models that deliver targets to their clients. He reviews the many ways in which VRIFY is unique in the industry, including the symbiotic relationship they have with clients, enabling them to use their proprietary software alongside the VRIFY team. He hints at some exciting current and future successes that the listener should stay tuned for. Steve believes we are about to enter into a period where AI will be ubiquitous in the mining industry, and VRIFY will be ahead of the game.

Theme music is Confluence by Eastwinds

eastwindsmusic.com

Come join us in Brisbane, Australia for SEG 2025, September 26-29th. This will be a dynamic conference with cutting edge science, new discoveries, technology and more. Opportunities for networking and learning include several workshops and field trips before and after the event, relaxed social events and of course the conference itself. See you there!

We are thrilled to bring you the top entries from the 2024 SEG Student Chapter Podcast Challenge as a special set of three episodes. This is the third and final bonus episode in this special series. We'll hear two segments that consider ore deposit models and environment of formation for Au deposits, traveling from China to Japan.

Chapter 1: From mineral system to exploration: a case in giant Zaozigou Au-Sb deposits

SEG STUDENT CHAPTER: China University of Geosciences, Beijing (CUG-B)

Host: Jiayi Wang

Guest: Jingyuan Zhang

This podcast episode focuses on the understanding of mineral systems and their role in shaping exploration strategies, with the giant Zaozigou Au-Sb deposits as a case study. Detailed geological mapping, geochronology, fluid inclusion, and structure analysis have revealed the structural framework, precipitation mechanisms, and the separation of gold and antimony in the Zaozigou deposits. These theoretical insights lead to practical exploration advancements in predicting the gold-antimony orebody occurrence, avoiding ineffective engineering practices, and locating the distribution of native gold

Chapter 2: Hot spring deposits - key finder for hidden ore deposits along the Peruvian Andes

SEG STUDENT CHAPTER: SEG - NMSM (Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos)

Hosts: Rosa Razuri Prado and Paula Martinez Segura

Producers: Alvaro Zapata Cornejo, Jean Crisólogo Zapata, Braian Vara Guzman

Guest: Diana Pajuelo Aparicio, Professor at Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru

Peru is a country well-known for its complex geology, with hot springs distributed along high altitudes surrounded by unconsolidated deposits overlapping exhumed ore deposits. This podcast episode is focused on understanding the presence of economically important metals trapped inside hot spring deposits, revealing a potential key finder for uncovering hidden ore deposits.

Diana Pajuelo, geologist with 11 years of experience in regional geology and geothermal energy, participated in various projects with the Geological Survey of Peru. Her expertise provides a perspective on two types of hot spring deposits, the capacity for hosting metals influenced by biotic or abiotic factors, and the overlap between ore deposits and hot springs along the Andes.

Theme music is Hot Wheel Breakdown by Elliot Holmes stock.adobe.com epidemicsound.com

Adobe Stock ID: #356951050

Come join us in Brisbane, Australia for SEG 2025, September 26-29th. This will be a dynamic conference with cutting edge science, new discoveries, technology and more. Opportunities for networking and learning include several workshops and field trips before and after the event, relaxed social events and of course the conference itself. See you there!

We are thrilled to bring you the top entries from the 2024 SEG Student Chapter Podcast Challenge as a special set of three episodes. This second episode in the mini-series pairs the 2024 Silver the intriguing stories and history shared by an esteemed geologist in Brazil, with a second segment that uncovered the history and mining potential of northern England.

Chapter 1: Title: The Evolution of Geology in Brazil with Reinhardt Fück

SEG STUDENT CHAPTER – University of Brasilia

Hosts: Amanda Rompava and Gustavo D’Amore Heer

Producers: Juliana Berbert and Mariana

Guest: Professor Reinhardt Adolfo Fück

The theme of this episode tells the story behind the articles and mapping work of one of Brazil's greatest geological characters, with special emphasis on the magmatic arc of Goiás in the Brasília belt, where important deposits reside, as well as his significant work on crustal structure, the Tocantins Province, and Goiás Massif.

With a cautious eye and carrying the experience of working with geology since the 1960s, Professor Reinhardt shares with us the unwritten history behind published articles, his perspecitve on the evolution of knowledge in the field and also the importance of mapping for a geology career.

Chapter 2: ‘The Critical Mineral Potential of the North of England’

SEG STUDENT CHAPTER NAME: University of Leeds

Hosts, Lily Dickson and Brayden Pickard

Guests: Dr. James Shaw (structural geologist) and Adam Eskdale (Rio Tinto)

provides an overview of mineral exploration and extraction in our region of the UK, the North of England (Figure 1) and its critical mineral potential. In February 2024, our student chapter hosted a mini-conference on the subject of critical minerals (Figure 2) with talks from companies including British Lithium, the Critical Minerals Association (UK) and Green Lithium. We were inspired to carry out further research into the critical mineral potential of the region we live in, the North of England, which we present in this podcast. At present, the UK does not extract any of the 18 critical minerals on the 2021 list published by the British Geological Survey (BGS). This renders the UK completely reliant on international supply which is a big problem, and one that we must try to address through increased mineral exploration and mining in the near future.

In order to provide a full picture of the critical mineral potential of our region, we explore the rich mining history of the North of England, dating back to the Bronze Age at sites such as Alderly Edge (Figure 3). We also investigate current critical mineral projects: Li exploration around the Weardale Granite and Potash mining near the town of Whitby. Finally, we speak to Dr James Shaw and Dr Adam Eskdale who have worked on fluorspar mineralisation in the South Pennine Orefield and cobalt mineralisation in the Lake District, respectively. They provide insights into these deposits and to potential barriers to their extraction in the future.

A big thank you goes to Dr James Shaw and Adam Eskdale for sharing their expertise with our student chapter!

Come join us in Brisbane, Australia for SEG 2025, September 26-29th. This will be a dynamic conference with cutting edge science, new discoveries, technology and more. Opportunities for networking and learning include several workshops and field trips before and after the event, relaxed social events and of course the conference itself. See you there!