BIOGRAPHY

Joel is Director of Geophysics for Lundin Mining, a diversified Canadian base metals mining company based in Vancouver and focused on brownfield opportunities.  But his career started over 35 years ago when after a single first-year geology course he enrolled in an honours Geological Engineering degree at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. 

Reluctantly leaving-behind the carefree but cash-poor life of a graduate student in Geophysics, he entered industry in 1996 where he’s had a lot of fun and many memorable experiences working in over 20 countries, from the high-Arctic in Finland or the Red Dog mine in Alaska to much of southern Africa, comprising six of seven continents, plus the sea floor around Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Fiji, and New Zealand. 

During his time in our dynamic profession he’s spent 9 years living abroad in Mexico, Chile, and Australia; learned to speak Spanish and rudimentary Portuguese and Swedish in addition to his native Dutch; explored for a multitude of deposit styles including diamond, VMS, porphyry-Cu, SMS (Sea-floor Massive Sulphide), magmatic Cu and Pt, oil sands, and sedex- and sed-hosted Cu and Zn; and worked for majors like Anglo American and Kennecott (Rio Tinto), mid-tiers Cominco, Teck, and Lundin Mining, and for juniors during a brief stint as a consultant.  The latter half of his career has included opportunities to work on exciting geophysical technologies like muon geotomography and SQUID-based EM- and magnetic- sensors, and on in-mine challenges including void detection and dewatering.

Joel is a registered professional engineer in British Columbia and is a past-president of both the British Columbia Geophysics Society (BCGS) and the International Airborne Geophysical Safety Association (IAGSA).  He’s also a member of the SEG, ASEG, KEGS, and would be a full-time member of SAGA if they accepted dues payments by credit card.