Announcing The Frank Arnott Award; a ‘collaborative’ challenge in innovation, data visualization and integration.

The Award invites  experienced geoscientists and undergraduates from around the world to work as  individuals or a team to develop ways to improve exploration outcomes and workflow through  data integration and visualization. Award winners will be recognized as part of Exploration  2017, October 21-25, 2017 in Toronto.

“The  purpose of the award is twofold,” says Ken Witherly, president of Condor  Consulting and a member of the award committee.   “One is to acknowledge Frank’s vision for multidisciplinary exploration  that all who knew and worked with him could attest to. The other is to share  some of the knowledge and excitement for the geosciences which Frank was known  for.”

Frank  Arnott was a visionary geophysicist from the United Kingdom who developed  techniques - some of which are just coming into practice today - designed to maximize the value of  multidisciplinary datasets. Arnott, who worked for two international mining and  exploration companies (De Beers and Rio Tinto) and later commercialized 3D  software called GeoExpress 2000, died in 2009.

Witherly  and his fellow committee members are aiming to raise $100,000 (CAD) through  sponsorship to cover the award’s prizes and expenses, including travel costs  for the finalists. They are almost halfway there, with a prize pool in excess  of $40,000. Sponsors to date are Rio  Tinto, Condor Consulting, Fullagar Geophysics,  Tensor Research and Geosoft.

Each  participant will work on one of five data packages from districts with  exploration potential. The data represents the Yukon Plateau (epithermal Au and  porphyry Cu) and Quensel Trough (porphyry Cu-Au) in Canada; the Kevitsa deposit  (layered ultramafic Ni-Cu-PGM) in Finland; and the Broken Hill (Proterozoic Ag-  Pb-Zn) and Gawler Craton (Proterozoic IOCG and Au) districts in Australia.The choice of districts was  largely driven by the quality and accessibility of the datasets, but the participants are  encouraged to seek additional data that contribute to their assessment.

A  panel of independent judges, drawn from the international community, will evaluate  submissions based on four criteria: innovation in data integration and visualization;  significance in improving exploration outcomes; impacts on workflow and  productivity; and collaboration by team members whose skills represent a mix of  geophysics, geology and geochemistry.

“The  award is designed to get people to work with the data and work with each  other,” says Witherly. “That is complementary to Frank’s vision and passion.  It’s a way of saying ‘well done, Frank’ and it’s very much where we need to go  in our industry.”

Registration is open and submissions are due Dec. 31st 2016. Finalists will receive their awards at a ceremony timed to coincide with Exploration 2017. They will also be encouraged to present their work at  the decennial conference taking place in Toronto in September 2017.

For  more information, visit The Frank Arnott Award.