Ben McCormack

BSc (Hons), BGeomE (Hons), MAIG

Outlier's director has been an industry technical consultant and structural geology specialist for more that 15 years; part of the well-known team at Jigsaw Geoscience and Model Earth before Outlier Geoscience became a full-time task. He has mapped mountains and deserts across the world, and pushed triangles developing 3D targeting models for the biggest miners and the most innovative explorers. A contributor to numerous Australian exploration and development projects spanning gold, copper, nickel, lithium and REE, he has also climbed through South American and Southeast Asian porphyry and epithermal deposits, worked on gold and copper projects from West Africa to the Central Asian Tethys, and chased mineralised boulders through the ice and snow of Northern Fennoscandia.

Prior to this he worked for AngloGold Ashanti during the early stages of exploration and subsequent resource definition at the vast Tropicana Gold Project in Western Australia. His contributions led to the development of numerous regional exploration targets and improvements to geological understanding of the gneissic Albany-Fraser Orogen.

➤ address

60 Garratt Road
Bayswater, Western Australia 6053

☎ CONTACT

ben@outliergeoscience.com.au
+61 439 441 509

exploration Strategy

Discovery is about more than keeping drill rigs turning. Outlier's focus on technical exploration strategy is the result of years spent consulting to mining and exploration companies all over the world. Understanding the relationship between fluid systems, structure, and host rock, is crucial to exploring for company-making deposits, and not just collecting prospects.

regolith and cover

Exploration is getting deeper. To explore for deposits under cover requires an understanding of weathering processes, erosion and fluvial deposition in dynamic landscapes, across sometimes vast periods of time. Outlier has pioneered methods of reconstructing landscapes to develop better models of regolith and cover with a specific focus on mineral exploration.

3D INTERPRETATION AND TARGETING

With advances in modern computer processing and the ready availability of quality 3D software, there are no longer many excuses for targeting on 2D plans and sections. Outlier utilises the Leapfrog 3D suite to model and interrogate data sets, develop geological concepts and ideas, and to manage the exploration process.

Innovation and technology

Making use of modern mobile technology allows us to visualise, navigate, and communicate ideas better than ever before. Even the most junior explorers can now access affordable technology to help level the playing field with majors. Advances in autonomous vehicles and rapidly-acquired geochemical and hyperspectral core logging will be the next frontier in exploration technology.

integrated STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY

Structural geology is not just faults and stereonets, it is the fundamental understanding of the physical properties of rocks and their reaction to deformation. These are the concepts that bind together the knowledge and data gained from geochemistry and geophysics into realistic exploration models.

TRAINING and support

In an industry obsessed with procedure, it is little wonder the grassroots technical skills of geologists is suffering. Outlier understands it might have been some time since you were last required to swing a compass, so it strives to provide realistic training and support without the judgment or the jargon.