Gold Road Resources nominates Duncan Burke-Shyne as the IMDEX Exploration Geologist of the Year.

 

Duncan joined Gold Road Resources as a graduate geologist in 2017. Being a strong team player with a passion for geology and discovery he was quickly promoted to Exploration Geologist in August 2018. He has recently taken on project responsibilities including targeting, drill planning and program management. Duncan is an inquisitive geologist that seeks detail and has developed a keen interest in geochemistry and pathfinder elements associated with gold mineralisation.

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In 2019 Duncan was given the task of evaluating the Yaffler South prospect which had a weak aircore gold anomaly.  Exploration of the prospect was complicated by the presence of a 10m thick blanket of aeolian sand which rendered conventional surface exploration techniques ineffective. He employed a combination of methods including the interpretation of aeromagnetic data, geochemistry and logging data to identify zones of structural deformation and mineralising fluid pathways which he interpreted could act as fluid trap sites to identify target areas for bedrock mineralisation. He designed an 11 hole RC drill programme to test his concepts.  From this drilling he made a new gold discovery on a parallel structure with the first numbered hole of the programme and secured the highest grade intercept of 11 metres at 5.94 g/t Au including 4 metres at 14.18 g/t Au .  A quick follow up programme was implemented testing up and down dip to confirm the geometry of mineralisation (figure1). He has subsequently designed follow up drilling using the integrated datasets which have been collected and work is ongoing to test the potential of this discovery.

 

Duncan has quickly proven himself as a valuable member of the team and Gold Road believes he has a bright future as an exploration geologist. He thinks through his projects diligently and continues to impress with his ability. With his contribution to the Gold Road team he is a worthy recipient of the IMDEX Exploration Geologist of the Year award.