Danae Voormeij: Going for gold in the tropics

1 of 4Aboriginal engagement with women from Meto village. In Papua New Guinea Voormeij was in charge of advancing four gold exploration projects. — Photo courtesy Danae Voormeij

2 of 4With the B2Gold soil sampling team at the Masbate Gold Project in the Philippines, 2012. — Photo courtesy Danae Voormeij

3 of 4Voormeij and Blessing in Zoryea Town, Liberia. — Photo courtesy Alexander Lerche

4 of 4Helping local women collect firewood for dinner after a long day in the field. This is a jungle artisanal mining camp in southeast Liberia, 2010. — Photo courtesy Danae Voormeij

Danae Voormeij BSc(hon), MSc, PGeo. (Da-NAY Vfoor-MAY) is a Vancouver-based exploration geologist with a mission to train young people how to explore for gold in emerging countries in the tropics.

Voormeij's journey to the tropics was indirect. Born and raised in the Netherlands, Voormeij immigrated to British Columbia in 1989 with her family. She studied earth sciences in university, graduating with a Bachelor of Science from Simon Fraser University and a Master of Science from University of Victoria.

After graduation, she went to work as a gold exploration geologist in South America. Voormeij was soon taking on more and more responsibility, forming field teams, generating gold prospects and drill testing them in such exotic locales as Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Uganda and Namibia. In 2011, she successfully led Hummingbird Resources PLC's exploration team to the discovery of Tuzon, 2.4 Million ounces of gold at 1.5 g/t Au grade in Indicated category, Liberia, West Africa.

Voormeij is the principal consultant of Mynah Exploration Inc., so named for the mynah, a bright and gregarious bird that is common to the tropics.

“The tropics cover a large area, between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn,” she said. “They're the new frontier for mineral exploration.”

Voormeij and the juniors that employ her like exploring in emerging countries in the tropics because they have first-mover advantage.

“Some countries such as Madagascar, Uganda or Liberia, have just come out of a civil war and are starting to get back on their feet again,” she said. “Often the new government looks favourably on mining and mineral exploration and mining laws have been changed to encourage foreign investment.”

Operating from her base in Vancouver, Voormeij works three months in the field and returns home for a two-week breather.

“The strategy I use is to take a large area, sweep across it, and find and stake target zones,” she said.

In addition to Hummingbird Resources, some of the companies she has worked for include Vangold Resources Ltd., Pan African Resources PLC and Ivanhoe Mines.

Out in the field, Voormeij hires local teams of geologists and field assistants.

“The young local people I've hired are very good,” she said. “They attend local universities and get a good, basic education in geology.”

Voormeij's favourite part of the tropics is Africa.

“I feel like I'm needed there,” she said. “The local people look after me and treat me like a big sister. I also likes Papua New Guinea. The forests there are very beautiful.”

In addition to being an exploration geologist, Voormeij is also an educator. She is offering a course called Gold Exploration in Tropical Landscapes for mineral exploration companies with gold properties in the tropics. The course is available on-site and as a self-paced on-line course at EduMine.

“The purpose of the course is to prepare field teams for grassroots gold exploration in tropical terrain,” she said. “They will learn field techniques that are specific to lateritic environments and how to recognize the geochemical footprint of different styles of gold mineralization in soils and sediments.”

Voormeij is also an enthusiastic proponent of a knowledge transfer initiative called South to South. A term used by policymakers and academics, it describe the exchange of resources, science and technology, and knowledge between developing countries.

“After a company has been exploring in a region for several years and invested resources in the training and education of local personnel, it makes sense to bring the best employees over to its next major exploration project, even if it is in another country,” she said. “Many exploration geologists from Western countries work as expatriates in developing countries. Why not make expatriates out of a company’s top national geologists?”

Voormeij said South to South encourages empowerment in local employees in a tropical country.

“It rewards those exceptional few by providing them with expatriate work, and gives them valuable experience abroad while they earn good wages,” she said.

Voormeij says creating expatriates out of local geologists, field assistants and camp managers will generate loyalty and give back to their country in many ways. “For example, if a mineral exploration company has a successful gold project in Sierra Leone and is starting another one up in Guyana, it can brings some of its best staff from Sierra Leone over to Guyana,” she said. “In this way, expatriate staff can be rotated between different international projects of the same organization.”

Danae Voormeij has advice for anyone exploring for gold in the tropics: follow the gold.

“After the price of gold went up, many artisanal miners—about 10 million small-scale miners—started exploring in the tropics. We can learn a lot from them by observing what they do.

“Small-scale gold mining provides important clues to location and style of gold deposits: Is there artisanal or small-scale gold mining activity in your project area? Follow the gold!

“First, assess the style of their workings. Determine if they are alluvial (placer gold in fine sediments and gravels) or colluvial (gold mined from localized landslide material). Then trace the gold occurrences back upstream and upslope to the primary source."