The 58th ILSG was held in Thunder Bay, Ontario on May 16-20, 2012.  The meeting was chaired by Pete Hollings (Lakehead University) with the considerable assistance of the local organizing committee (Bill Addison, Mark Smyk, Peter Hinz, Al MacTavish & Dorothy Campbell), the meeting was attended by a total of 240 delegates. Thanks to very generous support from our corporate sponsors (Goldcorp Inc. – Musselwhite Mine, Osisko Mining Corporation, Activation Laboratories Ltd. (Actlabs), Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., Magma Metals (Canada) Limited, MMG Limited, Rio Tinto, Stillwater Canada Inc., Fladgate Exploration, Thunder Bay CEDC, Mega Precious Metals Inc., Rainy River Resources Ltd., Metals Creek Resources Corp., Midwest Institute of Geosciences and Engineering (MIGE), Benton Resources Corp. & Rare Earth Metals Inc.) we were able to provide free registration to the 60 students who attended.

The two-day technical session began on Thursday morning with oral presentations on regional geology and then proceeded in chronological order from Archean topics through Friday afternoon’s presentations on Quaternary geology. A total of 27 talks were given, 7 of which were presented by students. A total of 31 posters were displayed, 15 of which were presented by student authors. The 2011 Goldich Medal was awarded to Jim Miller from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Mark Smyk presented the award during the annual banquet and supplied numerous examples of Jim’s passion for the geology of the Lake Superior region. David Overstreet gave the banquet address, discussing Human Adaptation to Late Pleistocene Landscapes - A View from Southeastern Wisconsin. For the first time we ran a core shack during the meeting with core from the Ring of Fire chromite deposits provided by Cliffs, from the Current Lake Ni-Cu-PGE deposit provided by Magma Metals Ltd. and core from Musselwhite Mine provided by Goldcorp Inc.

The meeting offered 13 field trips that highlighted the geology of Thunder Bay region. Four pre-meeting trips were run on Wednesday, including the Lac des Iles Pd mine led by John Corkery (North American Palladium Ltd.), the Sudbury Impactoclastic Debrisites at Thunder Bay led by Bill Addison and Greg Brumpton, the Geology of the Sibley Peninsula led by Dr. Philip Fralick (Lakehead University) Mark Smyk & Riku Metsaranta (Ontario Geological Survey) and the Shebandowan greenstone belt led by Alan Aubut (Sibley Basin Group Geological Consulting Services Ltd.) and Dorothy Campbell (Ontario Geological Survey). On the Friday afternoon three trips were offered, the Geology of the City of Thunder Bay led by Mark Smyk (Ontario Geological Survey), the Panorama Amethyst Mine led by Steve Kissin (Lakehead University) and the Port Arthur building stone walking tour led by Peter Hinz (Ontario Geological Survey). Following the meeting, Goldcorp Inc. flew a lucky group of individuals up to the Musselwhite Mine for a tour led by John Biczok (Goldcorp Inc., Musselwhite Mine). Mark Puumala (OGS) led a trip to examine the Rehabilitation of the Past-Producing Shebandowan and North

The meeting would not have been possible without the support of our sponsors.