Russell Birrell
Globex Solutions
Russell Birrell is a geologist/geochemist with 41 years of global multi-commodity mineral exploration and research and development experience. He has worked with numerous Australian and international mining houses and government and privately funded research bodies exploring across 38 countries. He has a successful record of participating in, and leading multi-commodity discovery teams within a number of mineralization settings and terrains including: gold, copper-lead-zinc, tin, tantalum, lithium and manganese. As a Director of Gold and Base Metal Exploration, Russell led a team of over 100 geoscientists and contractors exploring over 50,000km2 in the Arabian Shield. The program collected in excess of 500,000 soil and stream samples, drilled over 250,00 m of aircore, RC and diamond core identifying in excess of 1Moz of precious metal resources. He has authored/co-authored numerous company reports, R&D reports, and published scientific papers as well as presenting to senior management, company boards/shareholders, and international scientific conferences and industry conventions.
Using the ‘Fingerprints of Footprints’ to explore under cover, Extracting more from geochemistry, - advances in understanding, analysis and interpretation
A better understanding of mineral and petroleum systems, the behaviour of nano particles in relation to processes within the earth’s crust and regolith, and development of rapid cost effective analytical technologies now allows for significant innovation in surface exploration geochemistry.
Recognition of extensive lithochemical anomalies/geochemical halos characteristic of large mineral systems at depth, has advanced significantly, providing a better 3D architectural picture allowing improved drill targeting of economically significant mineralization zones within large systems.
The ability to distinguish a mineral systems’ ‘fingerprint’ in surface soils that reflect its ‘footprint’ from below, presents a unique opportunity for explorers to extract more value from the lowest cost, least environmentally invasive exploration samples they can generate – soil and stream samples.
Ionic geochemistry with multi-element analysis of soil utilising latest ICP-MS instrumentation that provides low detection limits with very high precision and accuracy, can now identify ‘natural backgrounds’ in soils and stream samples. Starting with high quality data allows for more meaningful statistical treatment.
The recognition of characteristic multi-element associations can help locate the position of the sampling surface within a mineral system to more precisely plan drill holes.