As assistant professor and research economic geologist for the Nevada Bureau of Mines and geology at the University of Nevada, Reno, Mike's research and mapping focus are on ore deposits of the North American Cordillera, particularly Carlin-type and allied gold deposits, epithermal, porphyry, and orogenic systems and how these systems relate to broader magmatic and tectonic processes. He is also involved in teaching undergraduate and graduate courses and advises several graduate students. Prior to his current research role, Mike worked in industry for about 20 years primarily for Newmont and Kinross in various positions in both mining and exploration realms in North America and globally.

David Rhys is a consulting geologist based in Vancouver, Canada. He studied at the University of British Columbia, and subsequently has worked for more than 25 years in the mining industry applying geological studies with a structural focus to exploration, development and mining. Mr. Rhys has extensive experience in gold and base metal deposits, with a focus on advanced projects and active mining operations, contributing to the interpretation of mine site ore controls, applications of mine geology to local and district scale exploration activities, and to the training to geological teams.

Shaun completed his PhD at The Australian National University in 2007, and then worked for 5 years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Mineral Deposit Research Unit, where he worked on developing vectors towards Carlin-type gold deposits, and developing new stable isotope methods suitable for the mineral exploration industry. Since 2012 he worked at the University of Waikato in New Zealand as a senior lecturer in Earth Sciences, before recently beginning a new position at the Centre for Ore Deposit and Earth Sciences (CODES) at the University of Tasmania in Australia.

Ken began his research career as a structural/metamorphic geologist analysing deformation and metamorphic mineral growth in rocks from a wide range of crustal environments. From early on, a significant portion of this work was focused on the structural geology of mineral deposits and/or their host rocks. With time Ken became increasingly interested in the structural geology of hydrothermal mineral deposits and the control deformation has on fluid flow and metal transport and precipitation.

Doug Kirwin is an Australian geologist with 48 years of international exploration experience. He commenced his career in Papua New Guinea with Anglo American in 1970 and later worked for AMAX in southeast Asia and the Pacific. From 1985 to 1995 Doug formed an independent consulting company. He was executive vice president of Ivanhoe Mines from 1996 to 2012. As a member of the of the joint discovery team for the giant Hugo Dummett copper-gold deposit in Mongolia, Mr. Kirwin was a co-recipient of the PDAC Thayer Lindsley medal awarded for the most significant global mineral discovery in 2004. Some of Mr. Kirwin’s exploration team’s discoveries and significant mineral resource expansions include a base metal mine in Jalisco, Mexico, three epithermal silver-gold mines in South Korea, the Seryung gold mine in Kalimantan, the Monywa copper and Moditaung gold mines in Myanmar and the Swan and Merlin deposits in Cloncurry, Australia. He is currently an independent consulting geologist working on projects in the Philippines, Peru, South Korea and the Kyrgyz Republic. Doug has an MSc in mineral exploration from James Cook University where he is currently an adjunct professor of geology. He is actively involved with the Society of Economic Geologists and is passionate about student training and development.