REPORT OF THE 54^th ANNUAL MEETING OF THE
INSTITUTE ON LAKE SUPERIOR GEOLOGY
Marquette, Michegan

The A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum of Michigan Technological University hosted the 54th Annual Institute on Lake Superior Geology on May 6 – 10, 2008 at the Ramada Inn in Marquette, Michigan. The Marquette/Ishpeming area has been the site of the ILSG annual meeting a total of 5 times out of 54. There were a total of 230 registrants for the meeting. Of these 37 were students and 215 pre-registered. The number of registrants for the meeting exceeded expectation.

The Proceedings Volume 54 was published in two parts. Part 1 – Program and Abstracts, edited by Theodore J. Bornhorst and George W. Robinson. Part 1 contains 45 published abstracts for 29 oral and 16 poster presentations. The cover of Part 1 was highlighted by photos of Lake Superior minerals in the collection of the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum and was designed by George Robinson. Part 2 – Field Trip Guidebook was edited by Theodore J. Bornhorst and John S. Klasner. Part 2 contains guides of seven field trips. The cover of Part 2 was highlighted by a photo of brecciated banded iron formation from Ishpeming, MI similar to one in Van Hise, Bayley and Smyth, 1897 and was provided by Tom Waggoner.

Field trips were a dominant part of the 54th ILSG, consistent with ILSG tradition. There were four pre-meeting, one “syn-meeting” and three post-meeting trips. Participation in the field trips was excellent. Most were full to capacity and one even had names on a waiting list. This first of the pre-meeting trips, was a two day trip on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 6 and 7. Tom Waggoner led this trip of 27 participants to examine banded iron formation of the Marquette District. In addition to the printed field trip guide in the Proceedings Volume, all registrants received supplemental material related to this field trip on a CD and a colored map of the Marquette District. Cliffs Mining Services Company is thanked for providing financial support to distribute colored maps to all registrants and for access to the operating iron mines. On Wednesday, May 7, there were three concurrent one day field trips. Bill Cannon and Klaus Schulz lead a trip to inspect the Archean-Paleoproterozoic unconformity at Silver Lake and possible seismites from the Sudbury Impact. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity since beginning in 1910 these outcrops have been under the waters of Silver Lake, a natural body of water enhanced for hydroelectric generation. In May 2003 an earthen dam failed and exposed the outcrops making the trip possible for the 25 participants. The reconstruction of the dam will likely be completed in a few years, so once again the outcrops will be underwater. Tom Quigley and Bob Mahin of Aquila Resources Inc. led a field trip focused on the geology of the Back Forty project south of Marquette in Menominee County for 43 participants. Aquila Resources Inc. is thanked for providing this field trip for ILSG and for financial support for color printing of the Field Trip Guidebook. Andrew Ware, Jon Cherry, and Xin Ding led a field trip that concentrated on the geology of the Eagle Project. Kennecott Minerals Company is thanked for generously providing this field trip not just once before the technical sessions, but twice, before and after the technical sessions for a total of 87 participants. Kennecott also provided financial support for color printing of the Field Trip Guidebook. The Sudbury impact layer is a topic of high interest. Since a single locality with outcrops of this layer was available near Marquette, the organizers sought to have an abbreviated “syn-meeting” field trip. Bill Cannon, graciously agree to lead yet another field trip for the 54th ILSG. Thus, immediately following the technical sessions on Friday May 9 there was a 3 hour field trip to the McClure locality to examine the Sudbury impact layer. This trip was so popular with registrants, that in addition to the 52 participants, there was a waiting list and multiple people were not able to participate. There were three post-meeting field trips on Saturday May 10. One was a repeat of the pre-meeting Eagle trip. Glenn Scott, Helen Lukey, Al Strandlie and CCI/CCMO staff led a trip focused on sustainable recovery of iron from the Marquette District. This environmentally oriented trip had 13 participants. A color version of the printed field trip guide was provided to all participants on CD. Cliffs Mining Services Company is thanked for providing this field trip for the 54th ILSG.  Dean Rossell led a trip to study the geology of the Keweenawan BIC intrusion. This trip, like the other trips, was well attended with 38 participants. Kennecott Minerals Company is thanked for making this trip possible for the 54th ILSG participants. Photos of these field trips can be found in our photo gallery.

The two days of technical sessions were held at the Ramada Inn of Marquette. The eight session chairs helped keep the presentations on track. There were the normal technical glitches. The student paper committee once again had a difficult job of selecting among 18 student oral and poster presentations. The committee awarded three Best Student Paper awards with a cash prize of $200 each: Elizabeth Drommerhausen (Minnesota State University) for her poster presentation titled: Properties of fluid involved in formation of natural ore in the Mesabi Iron Range, Minnesota, Carissa Isaac (Lakehead University) for her oral presentation titled: Stable isotope geochemistry of the Musselwhite Au Mine, north Ontario: Implications for mineralization, and Natalie King (Colorado State University) for her oral presentation titled: Using mineralization to evaluate small-scale controls on shale permeability in the Nonesuch Formation.     

Eisenbrey Student Travel Grants were given to 11 students: Terra Anderson (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Ding Xin (Indiana University), Elizabeth Drommerhausen (Minnesota State University), Emerald Erickson (University of Minnesota-Duluth), Elizabeth Fein (Kent State University), Shelby Frost (Winona State University), Lynn Galston (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire), Sally Goodman (University of Minnesota-Duluth), Susan Karberg (University of Minnesota-Duluth), Natalie King (Colorado State University), and Curtis Williams (Indiana University). The Mesabi Range Geological Society presented (Rich Patelke presenter) eight University of Minnesota-Duluth students with cash awards to attend ILSG: Dan Costello, Emerald Erickson, Brian Goldner, Steve Hoaglund, Tom Johnson, Susan Karberg, Jennifer Koester, and Chris White. 

One hundred and sixty-three participants attended the banquet on Thursday night. The 2008 banquet speaker was Jon Cherry, General Manager of Kennecott Minerals – Eagle Project. Jon brought participants up-to-date on the Kennecott Eagle Project with a well received powerpoint presentation.  A highlight of the banquet for me (Ted Bornhorst, C0-chair) was the presentation of the 2008 Goldich medal. Ted Bornhorst, Michigan Technological University was presented the medal by Jim Miller. Jim cited Ted for his contributions to Lake Superior geology and his service to ILSG.

The Institute’s Board of Directors met on May 8, 2008. The meeting was called to order by Chair Ted Bornhorst. Since the ILSG secretary could not attend the annual meeting, Chair Bornhorst took the minutes of the Board meeting that are as follows:
1. Discussed and accepted the Report of the Chair for the 53th ILSG from Laurel Woodruff and Jim Miller. Motion to accept by Mark Jirsa, second by Mark Smyk, passed unanimously.
2. Discussed and accepted the minutes of last Board meeting from ILSG secretary, Pete Hollings. Motion to accept by Mark Jirsa, second by Jim Miller, passed unanimously.
3. Discussed and Accepted the 2007-2008 ILSG Financial Summary from ILSG treasurer, Mark Jirsa.  The meetings Motion to accept by Jim Miller, second by Ann Wilson, passed unanimously. The discussion of the board concluded that the goal should be for meetings to not lose money nor make a huge amount of money.
4. Discussed reappointment of the Secretary and Treasurer. Pete Hollings and Mark Jirsa both agreed to serve an additional term. Motion to reappoint Holliings as secretary of ILSG and Jirsa as treasurer of ILSG by Mark Jirsa, second by Mark Smyk, passed unanimously.  In keeping the ILSG constitution, the motion by the board to reappoint Hollings and Jirsa was brought forward to the membership of ILSG at the annual banquet. The membership passed the motion unanimously.
5. Ted Bornhorst, agreed to serve as on-going ILSG Board Member
6. Discussed replacement of Doug Duskin “industry member” on the Goldich Committee. The Board approved Al MacTavish as the new Goldich Committee member with a term of 3 years.
7. Received from Mike Mudrey a progress report on scanning initiative.
8. Discussed changes as proposed by Chair Bornhorst to the membership criteria as posted on the web site. A previous Board made email as the only contact to determine membership in ILSG. The proposed revisions returned the criteria to postal address and made “Member for Life” status truly member for life. Motion to accept the changes proposed by Bornhorst by Jim Miller, second by Mark Smyk, passed unanimously.
9. Discussed at length various options for future ILSG meetings. Approved Ely, Minnesota at the site for the 55th annual ILSG meeting. The meeting will be hosted by the Precambrian Research Center with tentative co-chairs of Jim Miller, George Hudak, and Dean Peterson.
10. The Board once again discussed special awards for contributions to ILSG. The Board agreed that the only award from ILSG will be the Goldich Award. Chairs of individual meetings can consider special awards or recognition of individuals, but only with prior consent of the Board.
Jim Miller made the motion to adjourn the meeting after about 1.5 hours and Mark Smyk seconded. The motion passed unaminously.

The Co-chairs, Ted and John, thank the participants, field trip leaders, and presenters for without you there would be no ILSG. And we also thank others, not already cited above, who played a role in this years meeting: Gretchen Klasner was invaluable to the success of the meeting as she did all of the on-site registration. The staff of Ramada Inn was professional and did an excellent job of responding to last minute requests. Undergraduate geo majors from Michigan Tech were drivers of vans for the field trips: Carla Alonso, Austin Andres, James Julip, Matt Laird, Eric Murray. Darlene Comfort, A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum, did a great job of keeping track of all of the registration details. This was a major effort for her!

John and I hope that you agree that the 54th ILSG was a real success. Attendance in general and for the field trips was above our initial expectations. We are gratified that for all of the positive comments provided by many of you, thanks as it does make a difference. We are both happy to have the 54th annual ILSG in our past. Yes, being Chair of the annual meeting is a lot of work and added stress. But, it is worth it and we encourage others to try it out!! ILSG is a great professional organization with a long and rich history. We look forward to seeing you at the 55th  ILSG and many more.

Ted Bornhorst and John Klasner
Co-Chairs, 54th Institute on Lake Superior Geology