Geology Professor named NOHFC IRC Chair in Mineral Exploration

Dr. Pete Hollings, Chair and Professor of Geology at Lakehead University, will spend five years as the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) Industrial Research Chair in Mineral Exploration, working with Impala Canada to investigate the Lac des Iles palladium mine and the Sunday Lake intrusion of the Midcontinent Rift, both located northwest of Thunder Bay.

Dr. Hollings is receiving $670,370 from the NOHFC with matching funds coming from Lakehead University. He is also receiving $375,000 from Impala with matching funds coming from Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, bringing the total funding for the project to $2.1 million.

The NOHFC/Lakehead University grants will fund the Research Chair while the funding from the Impala/NSERC grants will support a the five students and one Postdoctoral Fellow working on the petrogenesis of Archean and Mesoproterozoic Ni-Cu-PGE mineralization in Northwestern Ontario, a project that will investigate the billion-year-old Sunday Lake intrusion of the Midcontinent Rift and the 2.7-billion-year-old Lac des Iles complex – both being explored by Impala – for nickel, copper, and platinum group elements.

Dr. Hollings will train the next generation of geologists – including five Master of Science students, five Honours Bachelor of Science students and one Post Doctoral Fellow, who will work closely together to investigate the two deposits.

He and his team will develop techniques that can be applied to the discovery of new deposits. Dr. Hollings said this training will make Lakehead University a hub for nickel-copper-platinum group element research in Ontario.

For more information please visit these press releases from NOHFC and Impala Canada Ltd.