News | Diamond Exploration Research Training School
Recent News
February 20-25, 2023 International Diamond School, University of Padua
December 12- 16, 2022 AGU Fall Meeting, Chicago IL
November 15-16, 2022 Applications of data science and machine learning in the resource industry tomorrow
October 26-27, 2022 MSA Short Course Diamond: Genesis, Mineralogy and Geochemistry
In conjunction with the release of a comprehensive review on the stae of diamond research and knowledge the MSA ran a short course with presentation by the lead authors of each chapter. The presentation were followed by an interactive Q&A session.
September 13, 2022 - Congratulations Mei Yan Lai!
Mei successfully defended her Doctoral thesis: Spectroscopic analysis of yellow diamonds.
July 11-15, 2022 Goldschmidt Conference, Hawaii
March 4, 2022 - Congratulations Nikita Kepezhinskas!
Nikita successfully defended his MSc. thesis: Age, mineralogy, and geochemistry of the Mel and Dharma kimberlites, Northern Canada.
February 4, 2022 - Congratulations Katherine Landoni!
Katherine successfully defended her MSc. thesis: Olivine diversity in the Leslie Kimberlite, NT: Implications for transport and emplacement processes.
December 7, 2021 - Congratulations Gabrielle Jones!
Gabrielle successfully defended her MSc. thesis: Implications of in situ zircon U-Pb, Lu-Hf, oxygen-isotope, and trace element geochemistry on the petrogenetic history of the Hogem batholith, Quesnal terrane, north-central British Columbia, Canadian Cordillera.
November 29, 2021 - Congratulations Sophie Leiter!
Sophie successfully defended her MSc. thesis: Controls on Distribution, Intensity and Extent of Palagonitization in Glaciovolcanic Settings.
November 1-2, 2021 - Data Analytics and Machine Learnings for Geologists - GACMAC 2021 Workshop
DERTS students attended this virtual workshop that provided an introduction to data analytics and machine lerning as applied to exploration and mining. The workshop included practical case study exercises using the free, open-source Biolabs Orange software and CSIRO-developed Data Mosaic tool for multivariate drill hole data. Presenters included: Dr. Shawn Hood (Goldspot Discoveries), McLean Trott (Goldspot Discoveries), Dr. June Hill (CSIRO), Dr. Morgan Williams (CSIRO) and Dr. Jess Stromberg (CSIRO).
August 13, 2021 - Congratulations Brody Myers!
Brody successfully defended his MSc. thesis: The petrography and mineral chemistry of melt-intruded mantle xenoliths from the the Chidliak kimberlite field, Baffin island, Canada
May 17 - 26, 2021 - DERTS Virtual Fieldtrip Presentations
In lieu of an in person fieldtrip due to ongoing travel restrictions the students were tasked with compiling virtual field guides for potential future fieldtrips. With student working in groups of 3 they prepared and presented field guides for 6 field trip localities that included:
- Montana potassic province, sapphire deposits and Yellowstone
- South Africa - Kimberlites, melilitites and regional geology
- Canadian Cascades
- American Cascades
- Southwestern USA - Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado
April 22 - 27, 2021 - Diamonds and their inclusions workshop
Dr. Jeff Harris led the DERTS students through a virtual version of his workshop coering all aspects of diamonds and their inclusions. The 3-day workshop covered topics ranging the history of diamonds and diamond exploration to the intricacies of diamond inclusions and their recovery.
March 23, 2021 - Introduction to Micromine Workshop
The DERTS students participated in a 1 day introduction to 3-D modelling using micromine software.
February 10-12, 2021 - Community Engagement Workshop, Dr. Jonathan Fowler, JA Fowler and Associates
During the 3-day virtual workshop Dr. Fowler introduced the students to effective strategies and protoccols for engaging with Indigenous communities in the context of exploration and mining. The students each received a copy of Dr. Fowlers book: Community Engagement with Canadian Indigenous Peoples to use as a reference in their future careers.
December 11, 2020 - Congratulations Kelsey Graverson!
Kelsey successfully defended her MSc. thesis: Diamonds and their inclusions from Snap Lake diamond mine (Northwest Territories, Canada.
December 8, 2020 - Congratulations Natasha Barrett!
Natasha successfully defended her Doctoral thesis: Evolution of the sub-oceanic mantle lithospshere beneath the SW pacific region.
October 14, 2020 - Congratulations Dylan Cone!
September 18, 2020 - Congratulations Margo Regier!
Margo successfully defended her Doctoral thesis: Subduction and the genesis of mantle roots and diamonds.
August 19, 2020 - Congratulations Christian Veglio!
Christian successfully defended his MSc. thesis: Behaviour of ore-forming elements in the sub-continental lithospheric mantle below the Slave craton.
May 4, 2020 - Risk Analysis, Prospect Evaluation and Exploration Economics Workshop, Bryce Kalynchuk - Rose and Associates
This one day workshop introduced students to the concept of risk analysis and prospect evaluation by examining several real world case studies.
March 20, 2020 - Congratulations Matthew Hardman!
Matthew successfully defended his Doctoral thesis: Improving the use of eclogitic garnet as a diamond indicator mineral, and constraining the origin of eclogites in the subcontinental lithospheric mantle.
March 12, 2020 - Kimberlite Indictor Mineral Practical, Cristiana Mircea, SRC
February 18, 2020 -Congratulations Will Siva Jothy!
Will successfully defended his MSc. thesis: Studies of inclusions and their host diamonds from the Gahcho Kue mine, Canada
January 17, 2020 - 3rd Annual DERTS Newsletter
Our third DERTS Newsletter is now available! The 2020 Diamond Exploration and Research Training School (DERTS) Newsletter provides information and updates about the DERTS program. This issue includes a summary of our 2019 activities, introduces our new recruits and include updates about upcoming events.
Last year we enrolled of our largest student cohort to date: 14 new students joined the DERTS program. The DERTS students participated in a variety of internships and workshops, presented at national and international conferences, organized and led an international fieldtrip and continued to diligently work on their research projects and publish their results! Details of all our DERTS activities are summarized in our newsletter.
We are greatly indebted to all our internship partners who continue to provide excellent and rewarding internship placements for the DERTS students. The students were excited to share their internship experiences with their colleagues through presentations on DERTS Day. Thank you for your ongoing support!
The DERTS Team continues to make significant contributions to the knowledge about diamonds, kimberlites and the mantle with the publication of over 35 manuscripts in 2019!
Our first international fieldtrip to Guatemala was a huge success! The fieldtrip was organized and run entirely by the student cohort. The group visited two ophiolite terranes and climbed several volcanoes to examine volcanic deposits.
December, 2019 - Congratulations David Sasse!
David Sasse successfully defended his MSc. David's thesis is titled: Attrition of mantle cargo during kimberlite ascent: Insights from analogue experiments.
November 18, 2019 - Congratulations Dennelle Smyth!
Dennelle Smyth successfully defended her MSc. Dennelle's thesis is titled: Petrology, chemistry, and geochronology of the Pikoo kimberlites, Saskatchewan.
November 12-15, 2019 - Kimberlite Petrology and Core logging Workshop
Bruce Kjarsgaard from the Geological Survey of Canada returned to teach an updated Kimberlite Petrology and Core Logging Workshop for the DERTS program. The workshop ran between November 12 and 14, 2019 at the University of Alberta. The workshop included lectures by Drs. Kjarsgaard and Pearson covering topics ranging from mantle mineralogy to kimberlite volcanology and core logging techniques. In the laboratory the students had a chance to examine numerous samples of mantle xenoliths and kimberlite both in hand samples and in thin sections. The practical portion of the workshop also included exercises on coarse and detailed line scans, heavy mineral scans and core logging.
November 1, 2019 - DERTS Annual Meeting
Our DERTS annual meeting was held at the University of Alberta. The focus of DERTS Day was to introduce and integrate our 14 new students from U of A and UBC. The day was the perfect occasion for the new cohort of U of A and UBC students to meet and interact with the entire DERTS faculty and the previous student cohorts. The new recruits got a to hear first-hand about the program through presentations by senior students about their internship experiences and research progress.
October, 2019 - Congratulations Marina Karaevangelou!
Marina Karaevangelou successfully defended her MSc. Marina's thesis is titled: A 3D Magnetotelluric study of the Slave Craton Lithosphere, NW Canada. Sean is currently working as a geophysicist with DeBeers.
September 12, 2019 - Congratulations Sean Bettac!
Sean Bettac successfully defended his MSc. Sean's thesis is titled: A 3-D magnetotelluric study of the Slave craton lithosphere, NW Canada
April 24 - May 2, 2019 DERTS 2020 Fieldtrip to Guatemala
In April 2019 a group of 10 DERTS students along with 2 faculty members participated in a student organized and led fieldtrip to Guatemala. The field trip was split into 2 parts: Part 1 focused on obducted arc assemblages from Cretaceous aged subduction in central Guatemala and Part 2 examined modern arc volcanism in eastern Guatemala. For more information please visit DERTS 2019 Fieldtrip.
March, 2019, Congratulations Ben Gruber!
Ben Gruber successfully defended his MSc. Ben's thesis is titled: Temperatures and Heat Production in the Slave Craton Lower Crust: Evidence from Xenoliths in the Diavik A-154 Kimberlite. Be n is currently pursuing his PhD at Scripps Oceanographic Institute.
March 14, 2019 - Indicator Mineral Workshop
Cristiana Mircea from the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) prepared and taught an Indicator Mineral Identification Workshop for the DERTS group in March 2019. The students learned to identify and sort indicator minerals from various size fractions of heavy mineral concentrate. Thank you Cristiana for sharing your valuable knowledge with the students!
January 25, 2019 - 2nd Annual DERTS Newsletter
Our second DERTS newsletter is now available! The 2019 Diamond Exploration and Research Training School (DERTS) Newsletter provides information and updates about the DERTS program. This issue includes a summary of our 2018 activities, introduces our new recruits and include updates about upcoming events.
Download the newsletter for more information!
December 11, 2018 - Congratulations Theetso Motsamai!
Theetso Motsamai successfully defended his PhD.! As a Motswana Theetso's thesis topic was close to his heart. He studied diamonds and their inclusions from the Karowe Diamond Mine in Botswana. He was fortunate to present at the 11IKC in Gaborone, Botswana in Sept 2017 and had his first paper: "Mineral inclusions in diamonds from Karowe Mine, Botswana: super-deep sources fro super-sized diamonds?" published in the 11th International Kimberlite Conference Proceedings. Great job Theetso!
December 10, 2018 - WISEST summer intern Hamdi Ali makes interesting discovery
Grade 11 student Hamdi Ali spent her summer conducting research under the mentorship of DERTS student Margo Regier. Hamdi was part of a number of interns at the University of Alberta sponsored through Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science, and Technology (WISEST) Summer Research Program. Hamdi's research returned unexpected results: samples processed through the Selfrag, a new instrument hosted in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, can better liberate diamonds than traditional mechanical separation methods. Hamdi presented her findings at the Yellowknife Geoscience Forum in November 2018. Her discovery garnered significant media attention for the budding scientist. You can read more about Hamdi's work on her poster or visit the full feature length story here.
November 5, 2018 - DERTS Day 2018
Our DERTS annual meeting was held at the University of Alberta. The day included a half day workshop with lectures that covered topics ranging from regulation in the geosciences (APEGA), working with the statistical software "R" (Matt Hardman) and systematic processing of FTIR data (Dan Howell). Our industry guest, Mike Seller from DeBeers Canada gave lecture on using cluster analysis as a tool in kimberlite exploration! The afternoon was filled with student presentations on their internship experiences and research projects. Great work everyone.
September 14, 2018 - Congratulations Janina Czas!
Janina successfully defended her PhD. Janina's thesis entitled: The Quandry of the Sask Craton: Origin and evolution of the lithospheric mantle beneath the Sask Craton provides the first information about diamondiferous and barren mantle xenoliths from the FALC kimberlite field.
September 7, 2018 - Congratulations Mei Yan Lai and Xia Xinchen!
June 29, 2018 - Congratulations Stephane Poitras!
Stephane Poitras successfully defended his M.Sc.! Stephane's thesis entitled Kimberlite Indicator Minerals from the Central Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories, Canada: a Reconnaissance Geochemistry Survey examined the provenance of kimberlite indicator minerals found on the Horn Plateau.
Congratulations Stephane!
May 30, 2018 - Congratulations Garrett Harris!
Garrett Harris successfully defended his M.Sc. Garrett is the first student to graduate from the Diamond Exploration and Research Training School (DERTS) program. Garrett's thesis was on the Mantle composition, age and geotherm beneath the Darby kimberlite field, west central Rae Craton.
Congratulations Garrett!
May 15, 2018 - Kimberlite Core Logging Workshop 2018
The DERTS Trainees and Associates completed a 1 week long Kimberlite Core Logging Workshop led by Bruce Kjarsgaard Research Scientist at the Geological Survey of Canada. A large part of the workshop was spent in the core facility at the University of Alberta where the students got to look at kimberlite core from across Canada along with some international examples.They learned the basics of core logging including how to do detail line scans, coarse line scans and mineral line scans as well as preliminary and detailed core logging.To see more images from the workshop check out our flickr gallery.
January 24, 2018 - Inaugural Newsletter
We are very excited to launch the Diamond Exploration and Research Training School (DERTS) Newsletter which will provide information and updates about the program on a regular basis. In our inaugural issue, we provide information about our program, a summary of our 2016/2017 activities, introduce our students and include updates about upcoming events.
The DERTS program is off to a great start. We have 12 students registered in the program that are fully funded through the program and an additional 7 students participating in the program that are funded through other grants. Throughout the past 18 months the students have presented at numerous conferences including the International Diamond School 2016 and 11th International Kimberlite Conference, attended fieldtrips to visit diamond mines in Canada and abroad, and completed internship placements. We are grateful for the support we have received from industry and government partners that have made these activities possible.
For more information please download our DERTS Newsletter!If you are interested in receiving future communications about the DERTS program please subscribe to our distribution list.
