Albert Lamarre—geologist, author and all-around adventurer

Lamarre is beside a mucking machine, an underground mining vehicle for hauling ore, at the entrance to the Thompson Creek molybdenum mine near Challis, Idaho, in 1976. — Photo courtesy Albert Lamarre

There is very little Albert Lamarre has not seen over 13 years as a geologist in mineral exploration. He has visited the world’s wonders, had his office bombed and stared a rattlesnake in the face, and he writes about all of it in his new book, Mountains, Minerals, and Me: Thirteen Years Revealing Earth’s Mysteries. Recounting some of his career’s stunning moments, Lamarre hopes to inspire people to see the beauty in life and adventure and to grasp every opportunity to live life to the fullest.

Lamarre hails from Bath, New Hampshire, which boasted about 500 residents when he lived there with his family, including four brothers.

In 1971 he earned an undergraduate degree in earth sciences from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and three years later he walked out of University of Western Ontario in London with a master of science degree in geology.

“I attended [what was then called] UWO partly because my bosses at the time told me they considered it to be the best school for exploration geology in North America,” said Lamarre. “I loved it.”

Thanks to his rural roots, he also loved the outdoors and was comfortable being alone. He grew up an introvert with no experience in geology but a natural aversion to “soft” subjects like sociology and philosophy.

“To Dartmouth’s endearing credit, the earth science department had its best professor teach the introductory geology class and it was offered that fall of my freshman year,” he said. “I saw it advertised in the course bulletin so I enrolled, and I was hooked.”

He entered the mining industry because he was fortunate to get a summer job as a field exploration geologist with three more experienced geologists who eagerly shared their work experiences.

A helicopter transported Lamarre into the East Goat Mountain exploration project in the Flint Creek Range of western Montana in 1978. — Photo courtesy Albert Lamarre

“It turns out they were kindred spirits,” he said. “And while performing my duties as the youngest guy on the drilling project, I discovered that doing geology is like being a detective, and that really intrigued me.”

He moved to other exploration projects that summer and the following summer scored a job conducting reconnaissance exploration in the Alaska Range between Fairbanks and Anchorage.

“Our commute to work each day was via a helicopter that picked us up at base camp and took us to the highest peak around, then picked us up at the end of the day,” he said. “As you can imagine, the mountain scenery with all its fauna (think grizzly bears) was amazing.”

At the end of the summer he could hardly believe his luck, having been paid to “ride around in a helicopter all summer admiring the scenery.”

Exploration geologists are instructed by a geology professor from the University of Montana about the exploration potential of Precambrian Belt Series rocks in western Montana in 1978. — Photo courtesy Albert Lamarre

He’s stayed the course in mining despite its inherent turbulence, thanks to the realization that Canada’s economy is based on natural-resource extraction.

“The most interesting part of my career has been going out into the field, studying the geology, deciphering the clues and then putting the geologic picture together,” he said. “I love playing detective, which is what field geology is.

“I’m fond of saying that the rocks talk to you—you just have to listen.”

Though he doesn’t have an orebody discovery to his credit, he did contribute to bringing the Thompson Creek molybdenum deposit in Idaho into production. During exploration of the property in the late 1970s, by zoning molybdenum concentrations in drill-hole assays, he recognized there was a previously unrecognized high-grade core in the deposit.

“Although I am not positive, I am pretty sure this substantially improved the economics of mining the deposit,” he said.

If there is anything Lamarre should be known for, it is his ability to grasp and live through harrowing adventure. Mountains, Minerals, and Me: Thirteen Years Revealing Earth’s Mysteries chronicles his adventures and puts into perspective just how wild and hair-raising a relatively common profession can be.

He starts his tale staring down the barrel of a shotgun, held by a Texas rancher’s daughter who couldn’t have cared less how curious Lamarre was about a rocky outcrop on her father’s property. Over the next 200-plus pages, he details this and other adventures, and encourages readers to take away a line from Chris McCandless in Into the Wild (by Jon Krakauer): “The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure.”

Drilling down

NameAlbert LamarreMust readsOh, boy! That’s a tough one! I love to read and there are so many great books out there. Let’s go with Assembling California by John McPhee. McPhee is one of my favourite authors; his prose is just mesmerizing.Quotable“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.”—Susan SontagHere’s a runner-up: “When it comes to adventure travel, you can’t take a wrong turn.” —Glen Heggstad