2017: Stu Averill

Stu Averill, AAG 2017 Gold Medal

Silver medal winner David Cohen (left), 2017 Gold Medal Winner Stu Averill (middle), and Pertti Sarala (right) accepting the 2016 gold medal on behalf of Reijo Salminen.

The 2017 Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to exploration geochemistry is awarded to Stuart (Stu) Averill, the founder of Overburden Drilling Management Ltd. (ODM) and an innovator in applied geochemical methods.  Stu has had a several-decades-long career of achievement in applied research, particularly in the development and application of innovative indicator mineral and gold grain methods to mineral exploration. 
Over the past 45 years, he has made important contributions to mineral exploration methods in the glaciated terrain of Canada and globally through his research and development at ODM in Ottawa.  His extensive achievements include the initiation and improvement of rudimentary heavy mineral laboratory separation procedures to concentrate indicator minerals from surficial sediments, making them more effective and practical for exploration, and the expansion of indicator mineral methods and suites to span a wide variety of deposit styles, from kimberlite-hosted diamonds to magmatic massive sulphide deposits.  Stu also developed a gold grain shape & surface texture classification that is now used worldwide, and has discovered or delineated indicator mineral dispersal trains for more than 20 mineral deposits in North America and Chile.
During his long and successful career Stu has been a generous collaborator with other scientists in government, industry and academia, and a willing mentor to students and junior geoscientists.  He has contributed numerous presentations and technical articles to IAGS Symposia and EXPLORE, respectively.  He is internationally acclaimed for his body of work, and is a most deserving recipient of the 2017 Gold Medal