Geophysics pioneer and PGW founder

Norman Reed Paterson dies at 96

OBITUARY

| Paterson remembered as ‘excellent ambassador’ for mining

SUBMITTED BY PGW

The geophysical community lost a giant on Dec. 22, 2022, when Norm Paterson passed away, a month short of his 97th birthday. Paterson’s remarkable career spanned a range of techniques and several companies that built strong legacies, with contributions to the full exploration cycle from instrument development to interpretation. He touched and influenced a number of prominent geophysicists along the way, in Canada and worldwide.

Newcrest’s shares jumped by as much as 14% in Sydney by press time to A$25.20, the greatest daily increase since 2008 and highest level since May 2022.

The company currently operates the large open-pit and underground Telfer gold-copper mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara region and is the top gold producer in British Columbia, Canada since the 2019 acquisition of the Red Chris copper and gold mine.

A year ago, the company expanded its footprint in Canada with the takeover of Pretium Resources, which handed it the Brucejack gold mine.

Newcrest also operates the Lihir and Hidden Valley mines in Papua New Guinea.

The combination of the two gold miners would bring them back together after almost 25 years.

Melbourne-based Newcrest was established in the 1960s as Newmont’s Australia arm and it spun out in 1990, after it merged with BHP’s historic gold assets.

Gold prices have experienced a sustained period of strength since 2020 and have increased nearly 15% since November last year. TNM

Norman Reed Paterson was an outstanding member of the small group of geophysicists who, after the Second World War, generated a surge in geophysical developments and activity that propelled Canadian geophysics into world leadership. Paterson was born in London, U.K. to Canadian parents. He and his brothers moved to Canada with their mother in 1939 before Paterson enlisted in the British military in 1943, at the age of 17. After the war, he returned to Canada in 1947 and attended the University of Toronto, graduating with a B.Sc. in engineering geophysics in 1950, and continuing his education by earning an M.Sc. at the University of British Columbia in 1952, followed by a PhD from Toronto in 1955, where he was one of Tuzo Wilson’s first post-war graduate students.

Norm’s first working experience in geophysics was as a seismologist in hydrocarbon exploration. However, he spent most of his distinguished career in geophysics applied to mining exploration. He participated in or was responsible for the discovery of more than 20 ore deposits in Canada and in many other parts of the world. After receiving his PhD in 1955, he began his career with Dominion Gulf in Toronto. He then joined Hunting Survey Corp. in Toronto as chief geophysicist. There, he managed ground and airborne geophysical surveys in Canada and in many other countries. In 1964, he formed Huntec Ltd., which rapidly gained a reputation as a leading manufacturer of geophysical instruments, as well as a skilled consulting and contracting company in geophysical surveys.

In 1970, he left Huntec to form a consultancy, which in 1973 became Paterson, Grant & Watson Ltd., joining with other wellknown geophysicists Dr. Fraser Grant (1926-1984) and Roger Watson (1936-2021). PGW rapidly grew to become a world leader in geophysical consulting and project management for mineral exploration. Within PGW, as it was universally known, and recognizing the growing importance of computer applications, Paterson established Geosoft Inc. headed by Ian Macleod, which is now a division of Bentley Systems and the dominant global supplier of software for pro- cessing and interpreting geophysical and geochemical data.

Norm’s career at PGW and earlier took him across the world. He had a particular affinity for contributing his knowledge and expertise in the developing world, across Africa, India and elsewhere, with involvement in many projects funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Although his reputation usually preceded him, admiration by other geoscientists only grew once they met Paterson. He was a mentor to and collaborator with multiple generations of geophysicists from the start of his career, and his influence and inspiration endure. Norm’s published technical contributions approached 80, including seminal journal articles.

Bill Scott, a geophysicist and noted early collaborator, remembers first working for Paterson at Hunting Survey Corp. during the summer of 1959, after his first undergraduate year.

“In addition to infecting me and my fellow summer students with his enthusiasm, Norm taught us a great deal about the importance of high-quality data, and about the need to understand the meaning of what we were finding,” Scott recalled. “I can still remember a discussion with him on the implication of the number of significant figures in a number (measurement), a lesson I never forgot.”

Stephen Reford, who worked for and with Paterson at PGW from 1981 until his retirement, noted that he conducted himself with professionalism, dedication and grace, and instilled these qualities in his employees and colleagues.

Reford recalled a field trip with Paterson to Burkina Faso in the See PATERSON / 10

CHILE from 1 awarded no contracts to private companies allowing them to produce lithium.

The situation is further complicated by growing claims from communities and the government over the country’s white gold.

When the government awarded contracts to produce lithium to two private firms — Chinese EV maker BYD and Chile’s Errazuriz Group — the tender was blocked in the courts by Indigenous communities who claimed that they not been properly consulted.

Meanwhile, new President Gabriel Boric, who took office last year, has promised to create a national lithium company to bolster production, strengthen government control of the industry and develop downstream industries such as manufacturing battery components.

The government has thus far not revealed what form the entity will take, other than that private investors will be able to participate. Details should come with the launch of its lithium policy which could happen in March, interim mining minister Willy Kracht said last month.

But now Australia-listed Lithium Power International (ASX: LPI) thinks it may see a way through the morass. Working from minerals claims on the Salar de Maricunga — Chile’s third largest

— which predate the 1979 decree, the company is advancing its Blanco project that would produce around 20,000 tonnes annually of lithium carbonate over 15 years.

The project already has an environmental licence (confirmed by ministers early last year), necessary approval from the Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission to extract and sell lithium and the consent of Indigenous communities living nearby.

After buying out its Chilean and Canadian partners in the venture, LPI is now in talks with banks over financing with the aim of beginning construction by the end of the year. It could be in production as soon as mid-2026.

The project “will help Chile to maintain a strong position in the industry at a global level,” CEO Cristobal Garcia- Huidobro told The Northern Miner Unlike other private attempts, the company has the backing of local Indigenous communities and the Atacama regional government.

“They have done things well from the beginning… it should not have any problems being developed,” governor Miguel Vargas said in an interview.

But LPI is not the only firm eyeing the Maricunga’s riches.

Collision course

Simco, a joint venture between Errázuriz and Taiwan-based Simbalik, is advancing its own licenced project on the salar, while state mining company Codelco has begun exploring its own claims in the area. Critically, the copper giant was granted a government licence to extract lithium covering a large part of the Salar.

LPI has sought talks with Codelco over joint development of the Salar, signing a memorandum of understanding in 2018, but talks ended without agreement and the MoU has since expired.

“Unfortunately, they did not advance as we’d hoped,” says Garcia-Huidobro. So the company is going ahead on its own.

That could put them on a collision course with other actors.

Just a twentieth the size of the Salar de Atacama, some doubt whether the Salar de Maricunga can support several brine extraction operations.

“It is a salar which in my opinion should be developed by one player, not many more than that,” Codelco chairman Maximo Pacheco told reporters last month. The company has applied to extend its government licence to cover more of the salar.

“We have expressed our interest given that we have our CEOL and the procedures that we are pursuing.” Fears are rising that the dispute over who has the right to the Maricunga’s lithium will head to the courts. Simco has already threat- ened to launch proceedings before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes if Codelco tries to block attempts to develop its project. LPI may face similar difficulties if it tries to go it alone with Blanco.

“If this becomes a legal battle, my fear is that it will be several years before Salar de Maricunga is developed,” says Cristian Quinzio, a mining lawyer.

By then, the bull cycle in lithium prices may have passed. Producers in Australia, Argentina and elsewhere are rushing to enter production as soon as possible, lithium recycling is expanding, while carmakers are seeking to lower raw material costs possibly by using alternatives.

“The opportunity for lithium is today — not in eight or ten years, which how is long it would take to develop and build a new project,” says Garcia-Huidobro.

Rather than a battle in the courts, a more promising path would be for the parties to reach agreement on how to best develop the Salar, perhaps with the government using its new lithium development strategy to facilitate a deal between the public and private sectors.

“We hope to continue advancing and working very closely with the Chilean state, whether that’s through Codelco, ENAMI or the vehicle that is defined,” GarciaHuidobro says. TNM