Geology at a Crossroads: Why the GSA Must Embrace Income Generators

As a consultant geologist in the mining industry, I’m deeply concerned about the ongoing closures of geology departments across Australia. The Geological Society of Australia’s President, Amber Jarrett , sent an email to members this evening announcing a town hall meeting on Wednesday, 27 November 2024, aimed at fostering dialogue on how to preserve what remains of Australia’s geology departments.

Date: Wednesday 27 November (next week)

Time: 4 to 5:30 pm (Sydney time)

Zoom registration: https://lnkd.in/gzbK3CXh

But will initiatives like this truly halt the closures??

My intuition: highly unlikely.?

Here’s why: every individual listed on this panel resides squarely in the "cost column".

Let me explain.?

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The Income Generators

Working geologists in the mining and oil & gas (O&G) industries are the backbone of Australia’s economy, fuelling a resources sector that accounts for 60% of the nation’s export revenue. These professionals are on the front lines, locating and extracting the minerals and energy resources that underpin our prosperity. From iron ore and gold to rare earths and petroleum, their efforts directly generate the wealth that funds infrastructure, services, and the broader economy—including healthcare and education. ?

Without these geologists, the raw materials that drive Australia’s wealth would remain buried, leaving no "cash from the ground" to fund the lifestyle we all enjoy today.?

The Necessary Costs

Environmental geologists are crucial for ensuring that resource extraction complies with regulations and minimises harm to ecosystems. Their work is undeniably vital for sustainability and environmental protection. However, their role sits in the "cost column". They rely on revenue created by the resources industry without directly generating income themselves. For every dollar spent on environmental management, reclamation, or compliance, the profits generated by mining companies shrink.?

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This isn’t to undermine their importance—it’s simply the economic reality of their position.?

The Academic Costs

Pure researchers in universities, particularly those disconnected from industry-aligned projects, also occupy the cost column. Their work depends on government grants and industry funding, yet they don’t contribute directly to income generation. While their research may lead to long-term insights or innovations, the immediate reality is that their efforts consume resources funded by income-generating sectors.?

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Without the revenue from mining and resources, much of the financial support for academic geology would simply cease to exist.?

The Dangers of Imbalance

Now imagine an Australia dominated by environmental geologists and academic researchers, with no mining geologists to extract resources. Such an imbalance is simply economically unsustainable. While environmental protection and academic pursuits are essential, a nation without resource extraction is a nation on the brink of economic collapse.?

The mining sector—driven by exploration and working geologists—supports these other roles. For every academic or environmental geologist, there are several orders of magnitude more geologists employed in the extractive industries. Without them, Australia’s economic potential would be cannibalised, leaving little to fund the pursuits we currently take for granted.??

The Elephant in the Room

This is the reality we face today: for decades, geology departments and their academic staff and the GSA have largely ignored the resources industry, as though universities and academic institutions operate independently of it. In truth, the existence of these universities—and the positions within them—are intrinsically tied to the resources sector.?

Yet, this connection is absent in the GSA’s narrative. Take the November issue of The Australian Geologist (TAG), the GSA’s quarterly newsletter. Of its 79 pages, only one three-page article on Mt Isa is included—and even that is framed within the context of Australia’s ‘energy transition’, rather than recognising the mine’s century-long legacy. The remainder of the issue is almost entirely dedicated to activities in the cost column. The April 2024 issue, even more glaringly, contained no articles related to the resources industry at all.?

TAG's "Don't mention the mines!" approach starkly contrasts with the reality that the top six most downloaded articles of all time from GSA’s official academic journal, the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, are directly related to the mining industry (Hronsky and Groves 2008; Leader et al. 2010; Hines et al. 2023; Hobbs 2023; Phillips et al. 2023; Reid and Cowan 2023). This trend continues, as the most downloaded article of the past year—another study concerning natural resources (Jennings et al. 2024)—has garnered more than double the downloads of the second-most popular article on sequence stratigraphy.

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In a country abundant in natural resources, with tens of thousands of working geologists clearly engaged with these applied topics, why are the words "mining" and "petroleum" so conspicuously absent from The Australian Geologist?

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The Way Forward

What is destined to fail is the GSA’s and academia’s continued prioritisation of the cost column while ignoring the income-generating industries. If the GSA genuinely wants to stop the decline of geology departments across Australia, it must address the elephant in the room: the working geologists in the resources sector who form the majority of geologists in this country.?

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Surprisingly, solutions may be within reach, but those proposed by individuals who operate entirely within the cost column are unlikely to succeed. The current cost-focused approach of the GSA simply isn’t the answer. For geology departments to survive, the GSA must recognise and embrace the contributions of income-generating sectors, ensuring they are integrated into a more inclusive and representative collective narrative.

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As Margaret Thatcher once said:

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Let’s ensure that this truth is not forgotten in our own geological society.

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#GSA #mining #O&G #geology #AIG

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References

Hines BR, Turnbull D, Ashworth L, McKnight S (2023) Geochemical characteristics and structural setting of lithium–caesium–tantalum pegmatites of the Dorchap Dyke Swarm, northeast Victoria, Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 70:763–800. https://doi.org/10.1080/08120099.2023.2209649

Hobbs BE (2023) The use of structural geology in the mineral exploration industry. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 70:899–907. https://doi.org/10.1080/08120099.2023.2228857

Hronsky JMA, Groves DI (2008) Science of targeting: definition, strategies, targeting and performance measurement. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 55:3–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/08120090701581356

Jennings A, Senior A, Guerin K, et al (2024) A review of high-purity quartz for silicon production in Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 0:1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/08120099.2024.2362296

Leader LD, Robinson JA, Wilson CJL (2010) Role of faults and folding in controlling gold mineralisation at Fosterville, Victoria. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 57:259–277. https://doi.org/10.1080/08120090903552726

Phillips GN, Vearncombe JR, Clemens JD, et al (2023) Formation of Cu–Au porphyry deposits: hydraulic quartz veins, magmatic processes and constraints from chlorine. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 70:1010–1033. https://doi.org/10.1080/08120099.2023.2237105

Reid RJ, Cowan EJ (2023) Towards quantifying uncertainties in geological models for mineral resource estimation through outside-in deposit-scale structural geological analysis. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 70:990–1009. https://doi.org/10.1080/08120099.2023.2217882

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Jun Cowan is a structural geological consultant, specialising in interpreting mineral deposits at the deposit-scale. He is the conceptual founder of Leapfrog software, which is now used by many international mining and mineral exploration companies (Leapfrog software resulted from private R&D collaboration undertaken by a joint venture between SRK Consulting Australasia, where Jun worked, and New Zealand company, ARANZ). Out of his home in Fremantle, Western Australia, he consults to mineral industry clients around the world and enjoys sharing his crazy ideas with his clients, and with online colleagues. This and other articles, mainly focused on geological subjects, are available from LinkedIn.

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