FEM 2023 Organizing committee
Chair of the FEM 2023 Organizing committee
Kaj Lax, PhD, Head of Department, Mineral Resources, Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU)
Kaj Lax is Head of the Mineral Resources Department at the Geological Survey of Sweden, SGU, Uppsala.
He has a background in geochemistry, and as Head of the Mineral Information Office in Malå.
Vice-chair of the FEM 2023 Organizing committee
Juhani Ojala, PhD, Chief Geoscientist, GeoPool and Aurion Resources Ltd., represents FinnMin
Juhani Ojala is the Chief Geoscientist in the GeoPool and Aurion Resources Ltd. exploration team. Before the current position he worked at GTK as a Senior Scientist. His work experience at GTK includes Head of Unit, Division Manager, Research Professor and Senior Scientist.
He has also worked as a Senior Geologist for the Store Norske Spitsbergen Grubekompani. Juhani has gained his PhD from the University of Western Australia on the structural and depositional controls of gold. After PhD and Post-Doctoral studies he worked as an independent consultant and a Principal Geoscientist for the Georeality Group in Australia.
Tobias Bauer, PhD, Associate Professor, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden
Tobias E. Bauer is Associate Professor in Ore Geology at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden. His research includes structural controls on ore deposits and the regional structural and tectonic evolution of mineralized belts. In addition, he is active in the field of 3-D and 4-D modeling applied to mineral belts, mineral deposits, and related structures.
He received an M.Sc. degree in geology from Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, Germany, in 2008 and a Ph.D. degree in ore geology from Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, in 2013.
Tommi Lehtilä, Geology Manager, Boliden Kevitsa, Finland, represents FinnMin
Tommi Lehtilä is currently working as the head of Geology Department for Boliden Kevitsa. His background is in mineral exploration, mainly for magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE, sediment-hosted Cu and orogenic Au, encompassing 15 years of accumulated experience with different companies such as Northland Resources, Polar Mining, First Quantum Minerals and now Boliden.
He received his M.Sc. degree in geology from University of Turku in 2008.
Elsi Malkki, Communications and Community Relations Manager, Agnico Eagle Finland Oy, represents FinnMin
Elsi Malkki joined Agnico Eagle Finland in January 2021, where she is responsible for communications and community relations. Elsi holds a Master´s degree in education from the University of Lapland. Prior to the current position, she worked in the Lapland Chamber of Commerce as a Vice President. She has worked in several positions in the field of business services, regional development and development of the business environment.
Riitta Muhojoki, FEM Project Manager, Regional Council of Lapland | FEM Conference
About questions concerning the overall conference organization e.g. programme, sponsoring, media relations, marketing and website, please contact Riitta: riitta.muhojoki(at)lapinliitto.fi
Riitta has been working with FEM conferences since 1999.
Tero Niiranen, PhD, Research Professor, Geological Survey of Finland (GTK)
Tero Niiranen is Research Professor at Geological Survey of Finland. His research includes ore formation of hydrothermal deposits, mineral systems, tectonic evolution of mineralized belts, 3D modeling applied to mineral deposits and mineralized belts, and GIS based prospectivity modeling.
He received a M.Sc. degree in geology in University of Turku in 2000 and a Ph.D. degree in economic geology in University of Helsinki in 2005. He has over 20 years’ experience in research and exploration of mineral deposits working with academia, research organizations and industry.
Jan Sverre Sandstad, Senior Geologist, Section for Mineral Resources, Geological Survey of Norway (NGU)
Jan Sverre Sandstad is Senior Geologist in the Section for Mineral Resources at the Geological Survey of Norway. He received his M.Sc. in ore geology from the Norwegian Technical University (NTH), now NTNU, in 1981. His main scientific interests include sediment-hosted Cu, orogenic gold, iron formations and VMS deposits, as well as the metallogeny of the Fennoscandian Shield. He is active in Nordic-Russian collaboration projects (FODD). Jan Sverre has extensive experience with regional-scale bedrock mapping, and he was heavily involved in a regional mapping programme in Mozambique. He was leader of MINN – a mapping programme focussing on the mineral resources in North-Norway (2011-15), and in 2019-20 he was leader of the Mineral Resources team at NGU.
Pertti Sarala, PhD, Professor, Oulu Mining School, Finland
PhD Pertti Sarala is a geologist and geochemist who is working as a Professor in Applied Geochemistry in the Oulu Mining School of the University of Oulu. Fields of interest include applied geochemistry, till and weathered bedrock geochemistry and mineral exploration as well as Quaternary and glacial geology, geomorphology and chronology. He is experienced in glacial processes, mineral exploration (project leading, field studies, concepts, training), development of surface geochemical exploration methods (in EU funded projects) and teaching and supervision of the thesis projects. He has twenty years’ experience of mineral exploration and methodological development in the Geological Survey of Finland. He is a member of the Association of the Applied Geochemistry (AAG), the INQUA Peribaltic working group, NORDQUA, European Geosciences Union (EGU), steering committee of the PalaeoArc working group, and unofficial Finnish geochemical working group Geokemian Rengas. Furthermore, he is member of the editorial boards of several scientific journals.
Sabina Strmic Palinkas, PhD, Associate Professor, UiT the Arctic University of Norway
Sabina Strmic Palinkas recieved her Ph.D. (2009) degrees from the University of Zagreb, Croatia. In 2013, she moved to the University of Auckland, New Zealand, for a two-year research fellowship, studying ore-forming processes in low-sulfidation epithermal gold systems. Since 2015, she has been affiliated with UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø as an associate professor in ore deposit geology and geochemistry. In 2019, she joined K.G. Jebsen Centre for Deep Sea Research at University of Bergen, Norway, where she holds an adjunct position in ore geology.
Her principal area of research is geochemistry of hydrothermal ore deposits, including mineral chemistry, fluid inclusion studies, stable isotope geochemistry, and thermodynamic modeling. During the past 20 years, she has been involved in studies of a wide spectrum of ore deposits, including epithermal, Carlin-type, hydrothermal-metasomatic, skarn, SEDEX, MVT and pegmatite deposits, as well as in several environmental studies. Recently she is mostly working on submarine hydrothermal systems along the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridges and volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits, orogenic gold deposits and sediment hosted Cu deposits in Norway.