Steffen is a Professor for Economic Geology and Director of the Centre for Exploration Targeting at the University of Western Australia. He has 35 years’ experience in economic geology specialising in mineral system analyses of orogenic Au, BIF-hosted Fe ore, porphyry Cu-Au, epithermal Au-Ag, VHMS Cu-Zn mineralization and Li-Cs pegmatite. Most of his present research projects are in the Yilgarn craton of Western Australia and in South America with projects in the eastern Andes of Peru, NW Argentina and the Precambrian shields of Brazil and Guyana. Steffen is also a Technical Director at Latitude Cobalt 66 Ltd and Nero Resource Fund.

Dr Carsten Laukamp is a Principal Research Scientist, with a strong background in mineralogy and economic geology. Carsten likes to unravel the electronic and vibrational modes, which can be observed in reflectance spectra collected from the continental to microscopic scale. For many years, Carsten has enjoyed using airborne hyperspectral (e.g. HyMap) and satellite multispectral (e.g. ASTER, WorldView3) imagery for regolith landform classification and mapping alteration mineral footprints associated with a wide range of ore deposit styles. Evaluating the recently launched satellite hyperspectral systems (e.g. PRISMA, DESIS) is Carsten’s latest passion.

Dr Jess Stromberg is a Senior Research Scientist and Team Leader of the Mineral Footprints team. She is a geoscientist with a background in ore deposit geochemistry, spectral techniques, and in the minerals industry. In the spectral sensing space, Jess works largely at the drill core scale with spectral mineralogy data from HyLogger and field-based spectrometers, and in knowledge transfer through delivery of workshops on the applications of hyperspectral mineralogy as a part of the AuScope NVCL.  Jess works across a range of applied research and technology development projects and is broadly interested in improving the workflows in which we collect and integrate spectral datasets from the X-ray to far-infrared.

Bio will be published later.

Maria Nyberg*, European Commission, DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, unit ‘Energy Intensive Industries and Raw Materials’ where she works as policy officer responsible for policy on sustainable and secondary raw materials, and framework conditions for primary raw materials. The aim is to support industrial competitiveness, including circularity aspects, through access to sustainable raw materials.

*Master’s degree in International Relations, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (S.A.I.S.), Bologna, Italy and degree in Business and Economics, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden. Experience in R&D academia/private sector.

Richard J. Goldfarb received his BSc in geology from Bucknell U., MSc in hydrogeology at University of Nevada-MacKay School of Mines, and his PhD in geology at the University of Colorado.  He was a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey for 36 years where his studies focused on global metallogeny, geology of ore deposits in the North American Cordillera with emphasis on orogenic gold, lode gold deposits in China, and geochemical applications to the understanding of ore genesis.  He is a past-president of the SEG and past chief editor of Mineralium Deposita.  He was awarded the Silver Medal by SEG in 2011 and the SEG Penrose Gold Medal in 2023, Kutina-Smirnov Medal by IAGOD in 2014, and the Gold Medal by SGA in 2022 for his various contributions to economic geology.  Presently, Rich is a research professor at Colorado School of Mines, serves as a technical advisor to Firefox Gold Corp., and is an independent consultant to the exploration and mining industry.

Jeanette Stovel (BA Hons [East Asian Studies], McGill University, 1986; Executive MBA, Warsaw School of Economics and University of Calgary, 2001) worked for 15 years in multilateral and non-governmental organizations in Canada and Poland and throughout the former Yugoslavia before joining Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada in 2006.

During her time at Headquarters, she has served as deputy director of peace operations policy for the Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force (2008 to 2009) and deputy director for the Middle East in the Peace and Stabilization Operations Program (2016 to 2019).

Her positions overseas have included political counsellor in Poland, where she was concurrently the most senior Canadian diplomat accredited to Belarus; chargé d’affaires en pied in Lithuania, with responsibility for Latvia and Estonia; and, most recently, high commissioner in Brunei (2019 to 2022).

Alan has over 40 years’ experience in the use and development of geoanalytical technologies. His specialism is in the development of workflows that allow geologists to image and analyse minerals, ores and rock textures at variable scales, with different modalities, and in different dimensions (2D, 3D and 4D). This novel approach allows all of the key materials at our disposal (drill cores, drill chips, thick & thin sections, polished blocks) to be evaluated for ore characterisation, mineral liberation and elemental deportment, all of which reduce risk and increase the likelihood of success in exploration & mining.