The 61st ILSG was held in Dryden, Ontario on May 19-24, 2015. The meeting was chaired by Robert Cundari (Ontario Geological Survey) and Peter Hinz (Ministry of Northern Development and Mines) with considerable assistance from the organizing committee (Mark Smyk, Al MacTavish and Pete Hollings). The meeting was attended by a total of 123 delegates including 31 students. Special thanks to individuals who provided financial support for the meeting (Mary Arthur, Steve Baumann, Leonard Espinosa, Gordon Medaris Jr., Allan MacTavish, Jim Miller and Paul Weiblen) as well as the Thunder Bay Branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CIM) for its generous donation.

The two-day technical session began on Thursday May 21st which focused on Midcontinent Rift-related geology and special topics including an extended oral presentation summarizing research to date on the Sudbury Impact Event in the Lake Superior Region. Technical talks continued through Friday morning with talks focusing largely on Archean geology. A total of 21 talks were given, 8 of which were presented by students. A total of 24 posters were displayed, 9 of which were presented by student authors. The 2015 Goldich Medal was awarded to Rodney J. Ikola from Esko, Minnesota. Thomas Waggoner presented the award during the annual banquet citing Rodney’s many contributions to the geoscience and mining community of Minnesota. The evening banquet speaker was Steve Beneteau – Senior Diamond Advisor / Chief Gemmologist for the Province of Ontario and the Manager of the Diamond Sector Unit for the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines. The title of his talk was: “Ontario’s Diamonds: A Journey from Mine to Market”.

The meeting offered three multi-day field trips, three one-day field trips and three half-day field trips covering the Archean Geology of northwestern Ontario. Three pre-meeting field trips were offered on Tuesday May 19th and Wednesday May 20th, including Red Lake Geology (2-day) led by Andreas Lichtblau and Carmen Storey (Ontario Geological Survey), a Western Wabigoon Subprovince Transect (Dryden to Meggisi Lake) led by Mark Puumala and Dorothy Campbell (Ontario Geological Survey) and the Geological Setting of the Thunder Lake Gold Deposit led by Treasury Metals Inc. personnel. Three half-day trips were offered on Friday May 22nd, including Classic outcrops of the Dryden Area led by Peter Hinz (Ministry of Northern Development and Mines), Gold Occurrences of Van Horne Township led by Steve Meade (Ontario Geological Survey) and the Unique mineralizing event at the Pidgeon Molybdenum Occurrence led by Craig Ravnaas (Ontario Geological Survey). Three post-meeting field trips were offered starting Friday afternoon running through Sunday May 24th, including the Historic Pickle Lake Camp (1.5-day) led by Mark Smyk (Ontario Geological Survey), Pete Hollings (Lakehead University) and Neil Pettigrew (Fladgate Exploration Consulting Corp.), the Ghost Lake Batholith and Related Pegmatites led by Shannon Zurevinski (Lakehead University) and the Mattabi/Sturgeon Lake Historic VMS Camp (2-day) led by George Hudak (University of Minnesota Duluth). Photos of these trips can be found in our photo gallery.

The Institute’s Board of Directors met on Thursday May 21st to discuss the business of the Institute. The meeting was attended by meeting co-chair Robert Cundari, Treasurer Mark Jirsa, Secretary Peter Hollings and board members Jim Miller (2014 chair), Theodore Bornhorst (2013 chair) and Al MacTavish (2012 chair). Secretary Hollings took the minutes of the Board meeting that are as follows:

1. Accepted report of the Chairs for the 60th ILSG, Hibbing, Minnesota; as printed in the Proceeding Volume (Miller), and minutes of last Board meeting, May 15, 2014 (Hollings)
2. Received, discussed, and accepted 2014-2015 ILSG Financial Summary (Jirsa).
3. Received, discussed, and accepted 2014-2015 report of the Secretary (Hollings).
4. Approved Rob Cundari as on-going ILSG Board member
5. Approved Duluth as the site for the 62nd annual ILSG meeting. The meeting will be hosted by Jim Miller and Christian Schardt.
6. Discussed and approved replacing Bernhardt Saini-Eidukat as the “member from academia” on Goldich Committee (end of term 2015) with Shannon Zurevinski
7. Discussed student research grants. It was agreed that the application deadline will be switched to April 1 with results announced by April 30 each year. The next competition will be held in 2016. Jirsa to provide a list of all recipients of these awards so their attendance at the Annual Meeting can be tracked.
8. Jirsa to investigate the possibility of obtaining Director’s insurance including the cost and what would be covered. Also to investigate the implication of turning the Institute into a LLC.
9. Jirsa to develop a budget template for Meeting Chairs to help with the reporting of expenses and revenue when submitting the financial summaries to the Treasure

 

The chairs would like to thank all those who assisted with the meeting including the organizing committee, the field trip leaders, the session chairs, service providers and those who provided support behind the scenes. The chairs would also like to thank those who participated in the meeting including the field trip attendees and the oral and poster presenters for their enthusiastic involvement with the Institute.

Respectfully submitted,

Robert Cundari and Peter Hinz
Co-chairs, 61st Institute on Lake Superior Geology