OFFICERS, 1996-1997

President:
W.D. Sinclair
Vice-President:
D.H.C. Wilton
Vice-President Elect:
M. Vallée
Secretary-Treasurer:
A. Galley
Secretary-Treasurer Elect:
TBA
Past President:
S.R. McCutcheon

COUNCILLORS

R. Adair
E. Brown
E. Debicki
P. Olson
M. Robb

COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN

Awards:

S.R. McCutcheon
Conferences (Symposia):
TBA

Executive:
W.D. Sinclair

Mineral Deposits Research:
I. Cadieux
K. Ferreira

Nominations:
S.R. McCutcheon

Publications:
O.J. Bonham

Bulletin Associate Editor:
G. O'Reilly
EMG Editors:

T. Barrett
A. Williams-Jones

Newsletter Editor:
D. Paktunc

Special Volumes Editor:
T. Schroeter

University Visiting Lecturers:
B. Nesbitt

SECTIONS

Saskatoon Section:
W. Ryan

Sudbury Section:
T. Hart

REPRESENTATIVES ON INSTITUTE COMMITTEES

AGM Technical Program:
D.H.C. Wilton

Barlow Memorial Medal:
M. Vallée

Bulletin:
G. O'Reilly

Centennial:
J. Trottier

Central Publications:
O.J. Bonham

Distinguished Lecturers:
W.D. Sinclair

Education:
M. Gerow

Environmental:
D. Boyle

Fellowship Selection:
S.R. McCutcheon

Julian Boldy Memorial:
S.R. McCutcheon

Membership:
D.H.C. Wilton

President Elect Nominating:
W.D. Sinclair

Public Affairs:
M. Vallée

Special Volumes:
T. Schroeter

Student Essays:
A. Brown

PRESIDENT'S REPORT

President's Report 1996-1997
The Geological Society was active in numerous areas in 1996-97, including technical sessions at the Annual General Meeting, a University Visiting Lecturers program, and publications such as the CIM Bulletin, CIM Special Volumes, and the quarterly journal - Exploration and Mining Geology. Other highlights include the development of a home page on the Internet, the publication of a Society brochure, and initiation of a project with Science North in Sudbury to develop computer software highlighting the importance of Canada's mineral resources and the activities of exploration geologists that lead to the discovery and development of mineral deposits. The accomplishments of the Geological Society reflect the hard work and support of all the Officers, Councillors, Committee Chairmen and Institute Committee Representatives who served on the 1996-97 Geological Society Council. The Geological Survey of Canada is acknowledged for support in helping me to fulfill my commitment to CIM.

Annual Field Conference
The Sixth Annual Field Conference, organized together with the Newfoundland Branch of CIM, was scheduled to be held in September, 1996 in Gander, Newfoundland. The organizing committee, chaired by Dave Evans, put together an excellent, well-advertised program to highlight numerous mines and exploration opportunities in Newfoundland and Labrador, including Voisey's Bay type exploration targets. However, despite the relevance of the theme and for reasons yet unclear, the field conference failed to attract sufficient registrants for the field trips and, regrettably, had to be cancelled to avoid substantial financial losses. In 1997, the Geological Society had planned to co-sponsor, together with the Yukon Chamber of Mines, a field trip to examine mineral deposits in the Yukon Territory, particularly recent discoveries of volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits in southeastern Yukon Territory. Unfortunately, this field trip was also undersubscribed and was cancelled. Undeterred by these setbacks, the Geological Society is organizing field trips to be run in conjunction with the Pathways to Discovery meeting in Vancouver, January 28-30, 1998. Two field trips are planned, one to visit mines in British Columbia and the other to visit mines in the Abitibi belt in Ontario. The 1999 Field Conference is scheduled for Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Annual General Meeting
At the CIM Annual General Meeting in Edmonton in 1996, three technical sessions were organized by Michael Dufresne for the Geological Society; these included one on "Exploration and Development in the Arctic" and two on "Canadian and Foreign Exploration Developments". The CIM Annual General Meeting in 1997 was held in Vancouver and highlighted recent exploration developments across Canada. The 100th AGM of CIM in Montreal in 1998 will be a major international event; geology sessions at the meeting will focus on "Major Canadian Ore Deposits", "New Targets" and "New Tools" in exploration.

Awards
The Barlow Memorial Medal, presented annually since 1926, is awarded to the author(s) of the most outstanding geological paper published during the year in either the CIM Bulletin or Exploration and Mining Geology. For 1996, the selection committee, chaired by Marcel Vallée, chose the paper "An Archean volcanic-related gold-sulfide-quartz vein orebody" by Damien Gaboury, Réal Daigneault, Ghislain Tourigny and Claude Gobeil. In the CIM Student Essay Competition, the graduate award winners were Werner E. Halter of McGill University, who won first prize for his essay, "Physiochemical controls of greisen formation and cassiterite deposition of the East Kemptville tin deposit, Nova Scotia", and Michael Lewchuk, University of Windsor, who won second prize for his essay, "Genesis of the Central Tennessee Mississippi Valley-type ore deposits and host rock dolomitization from paleomagnetism". The undergraduate winner, who also won the President's Medal, was Stephen J. Piercy of Memorial University for his essay, "The geology and geochemistry of the Southern Pacquet Harbour Group Volcanics, Baie Verte Peninsula, Newfoundland". The Julian Boldy Memorial Award, initiated in 1986, recognizes exceptional contributions to the Geological Society; this award was presented to Oliver Bonham for his outstanding work and commitment related to the business side of the Society's quarterly journal, Exploration and Mining Geology. The Geological Society also successfully nominated Dave Watkins for the A.O. Dufresne Award and Chuck Fipke for the J.C. Sproule Memorial Plaque. Society members who received CIM Fellowship awards were Gordon Gross and John Jambor. Also in 1996, the Society successfully nominated R.W. Boyle for induction into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.

Council Meetings
The Geological Society held three council meetings during the year. The highlights of the Fall Council meeting, held in October in Montreal, were published in the January 1997 issue of the CIM Bulletin. Council meetings were also held in Toronto in March at the time of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada meeting and in Vancouver in late April in conjunction with the CIM Annual General Meeting.

Financial Position
The Society started the calendar year with a balance of $44,980; the bank balance at the end of 1996 was $58,063. The major expenditures during the year included $10,000 for the computer software program being developed by Science North in Sudbury; an additional $10,000 is committed for the completion of this project in 1997. Other expenditures were for the reprinting of CIM Special Volume No. 45 ($2,000) and the Society's commitment to the CIM Endowment Fund ($2,000). These expenses were more than offset by revenue from the highly successful Yellowknife Field Conference ($16,905), sales of Special Volumes ($9,367), and the Society's share of the profit from Exploration and Mining Geology ($2,227).

Membership
At the end of 1996, membership in the Geological Society stood at 1897, a decrease of about 5% compared to the 1995 members in good standing at the end of 1995, and down considerably from the high of 2428 members at the end of 1991. This disturbing trend is probably due, at least in part, to the failure of the Society to retain new members recruited at national and local meetings. The Society is particularly concerned about the lack of student members, despite inducements such as greatly discounted prices on Special Volumes. The Society is pursuing initiatives to universities and mining/exploration centres to attract and retain new members.

Publications
In 1996, the CIM Bulletin introduced a new format in conjunction with the transition to desktop publishing. The new format has been favourably received by readers and should appeal to authors considering publishing in the Bulletin. George O'Reilly, Bulletin Editor for the Society, will be pleased to consider technical papers of a more general scope that will appeal to a broad range of readers. In 1996, the Society did not use its full allotment of pages; the Bulletin contained four geological papers and the Society Newsletter appeared in 7 of 10 issues. The February 1997 issue of the Bulletin was a theme issue championed by the Society; this issue included a compilation of Canadian university geology theses completed during the period 1993-1995 and selected abstracts of theses of particular relevance to mineral exploration and research on mineral deposits. The Newsletter is viewed as an important vehicle by which to "network" with members; items for the Newsletter should be forwarded to the Newsletter Editor, Dogan Paktunc, Tel.: (613)947-7061; Fax: (613)996-9673; e-mail: dpaktunc@ NRCan.gc.ca The Society's quarterly journal, Exploration and Mining Geology, continues to gain stature in the exploration and scientific community, but is facing a period of transition. Our publisher, Elsevier Science Ltd., has given notice that it will not publish the journal after completion of the 1997 issues and the Society will undertake to publish the journal in partnership with CIM. Preliminary estimates suggest that this arrangement will be profitable for both the Society and CIM. Also, 1996 represents the first full year of the journal under the editorship of Tim Barrett, Colin Spence and Anthony Williams-Jones. This editorship is also undergoing transition, however, owing to the tragic death of Colin Spence and the resignation of Tim Barrett, whose recent departure from the Mineral Deposits Research Unit at the University of British Columbia left him without an adequate base of support to carry out his editorial duties. The Society highly appreciates the excellent job Tim has done as Chief Editor and our best wishes are extended to him in his future endeavours. Jim Franklin of the Geological Survey of Canada will succeed Tim as Chief Editor. Special Volume No. 46, "Porphyry Deposits of the Northwestern Cordillera of North America", edited by Tom Schroeter and his team, has received highly favourable reviews in major international journals and is selling very well. The demand for Special Volume No. 45, entitled "A Guide to the Evaluation of Gold Deposits", by Marcel Vallée, is such that it was sold out in 1995 and was reprinted in 1996.

Mineral Deposits Research
The latest compilation of theses related to earth sciences conducted at Canadian universities was for the period 1993-1995, and was completed in 1996 by Isabelle Cadieux and Karen Ferreira and published in the February 1997 issue of the CIM Bulletin. In addition to the list of thesis titles, the compilation included edited abstracts of theses directly related to studies of mineral deposits and various aspects of mineral exploration.

Canadian Geoscience Council
One of the main issues concerning the Canadian Geoscience Council in 1996 was the report "Future Challenges and Trends in the Geosciences in Canada", prepared by a committee chaired by C.R. Barnes and published in Geoscience Canada, Vol. 22, Nos. 1 and 2 in 1996. This report promotes the concept of "Earth systems science" that would link traditional hard-rock geology and related disciplines with marine geoscience and atmospheric science. It also suggests that mineral resources will be of decreasing importance in Canada, although Canadian exploration geologists could remain as leaders of mineral exploration on a global scale. The Canadian Geoscience Council strongly supported a number of the recommendations in the "Barnes report", in particular, expanding links between various earth sciences and related disciplines, and actively promoting greater public awareness of Earth sciences.

Internet
The Geological Society now has a home page linked to the newly-established CIM site on the World Wide Web (http://www.cim.org). This site will be used in the future to highlight the Society's activities, such as upcoming field conferences and titles of papers in current issues of Exploration and Mining Geology.

Centennial Project
In 1996, as its contribution to the Centennial of CIM, the Geological Society initiated a project with Science North in Sudbury to develop a computer program that will convey information about mineral exploration and the importance of Canada's mineral resources. In particular, the program will highlight four main activities that can be part of an exploration program: geological mapping, geochemical surveys, geophysical surveys, and diamond drilling. The program will be interactive, allowing users to make decisions with regard to the information they receive. The object is to use this information to drill holes in the search for a hidden ore deposit. The computer program will be used as part of the displays at Science North but will also be distributed by the Geological Society on diskette and CD-ROM. The Education Committee of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada has expressed interest in this program, for possible inclusion with material on mining distributed to public schools.

University Visiting Lecturers Program
The University Visiting Lecturers Committee, chaired by Bruce Nesbitt, selected Dr. Kevin Ansdell as its candidate for the 1996-97 lecture tour. Dr. Ansdell presented his talk entitled "Lode gold and ancient mountain belts: Emphasis on the Trans-Hudson Orogen, and the Tian Shan" at five universities during March and April. Dr. Ansdell reported that his talk was well received.

Colin D. Spence
The Society experienced a great loss in 1996 when Colin Spence was killed in the Philippines carrying out mineral exploration for Rio Algom Exploration Ltd. (CIM Bulletin, October 1996). Colin was an outstanding explorationist and a major supporter of the Society; most recently, he was one of the editors of the Society's quarterly journal, Exploration and Mining Geology. Colin's counsel and support will be sorely missed.