TAG - Geological Society of Australia

Johannes Hammerli. Imagecourtesy Johannes Hammerli.Gisela Cobenas at Cape Hauy in the Tasmanpeninsula, where the dolerite columnformations are spectacular. Image courtesyFrancisco Testa.Ed Saunders on an undergraduate fieldtripto the Ormiston Gorge in the NorthernTerritory, which he attended as a tutor.Image courtesy Charmaine Thomas.Kieran Meaney with hisposter at the 34th IGC.Image courtesy KieranMeaney.The most exciting and rewarding moment of all, however, wasthe chance to display a poster of my own work and the resultsfrom my project so far. It was a great feeling to have otherresearchers see my work, ask questions with genuine interest anddiscuss what affect my work might have on theirs. In momentslike these there is a great feeling of accomplishment, and not thekind that I was expecting to feel throughout my Honours year.I would like to thank everyone who supported me, andespecially my supervisor, Alan Collins, for putting me up to thechallenge of presenting. I would also like to thank the SouthAustralian Division of the GSA for their generous financialsponsorship, without which I may not have been able to attend.KIERAN MEANEYHonours student, University of AdelaideNick LyonsThe ICG was a fantastic opportunity for a young geologist likeme to meet and interact with the global geological communityfor the first time. I feel very fortunate to have attended.There were many, many highlights of the conference, butthree specifically come to mind.The first was the chance to present a poster about some ofthe work I had completed from my 2012 Honours thesis Evidenceof magmatic hydrothermal mineralisation at Kanmantoo Au–Cudeposit, South Australia. Some of the insightful feedbackI received about my work I will carry through the remainder ofmy geological career. The chance to ‘talk rocks’ with geologistsfrom around the world will always be a great memory.The second highlight was the chance to listen to some of thevery insightful, ground-breaking research that is currently beingundertaken on some of the largest ore deposits around the world.Presentations on the porphyry deposits of South America andepithermal deposits of the Indonesian archipelago, the modelsfor formation and challenges when exploring for them wereintriguing.The third highlight was seeing the quality of representationfrom Australia, and the immense interest in Australian geologyfrom the international community. The research and developmentof iron-oxide–copper–gold (IOCG) deposits in Australia and thecontribution that Australia is making towards these uniquedeposits was encouraging to see. Contributions from Australianresearchers to the supercontinent cycle and global tectonics werealso of great interest, as was the pride shown towards theAustralian geological community.I would like to thank the GSA SA Division, and the scholarshipthat I received, without which I would not have been able toattend and be involved in this once-in-a-lifetime experience.Rock on GSA SA!!NICK LYONSHonours student, University of AdelaideYuan MeiI would like to acknowledge the SGGMP and the South AustraliaDivision of the GSA for sponsoring my registration to attend IGCthis year.I gave an oral presentation in the session ‘Global sulfur cycleand impact on metallogenesis’ with the title ‘Speciation andthermodynamic properties of d 10 transition metals: insights fromab-initio molecular dynamics simulations’. In this talk, I sharedthe idea of applying computational chemistry methods to get amolecular-level insight into the physical and chemical factorsthat affect ore transport and deposition over a wide range ofconditions. In particular, I presented my recent studies that showhow molecular dynamics simulation helps us to understand thecoordination chemistry and structural properties of metalcomplexation, how to derive the thermodynamic properties andbuild metal transport-deposition models, and to predict the metalspeciation for experimentally unknown systems.42 |TAG December 2012