SOCIETY OF ECONOMIC GEOLOGISTS, INC.
7811 Shaffer Parkway • Littleton, CO 80127-3732 USA
Tel: 1.720.981.7882 • Fax: 1.720.981.7874
E-mail: studentprograms@segweb.org
Student Chapter Annual Report Form
The purpose of this form is to report on Student Chapter activities over the previous year. The report provides a useful medium to document the status and progress of individual chapters. Annual Reports are used to evaluate applications for SEG support and to keep Student Chapter information up-to-date on the SEG website. Please provide a summary of Student Chapter
activities in a concise form as suggested below. Description of programs may be supported by a limited number of photographs
and figures in a format appropriate for publishing on our website.
Submission Deadline: 30th September
Submit to: studentprograms@segweb.org
08/2015
12/2015
Month/Year Reported — From: Mo./Yr_______________________
To: Mo./Yr. _______________________
Society of Economic Geologist - UTEP Student Chapter
Student Chapter Name: _________________________________________________________________________________
500 W. University, El Paso TX 79968
Student Chapter Mailing Address: ________________________________________________________________________
www.geo.utep.edu
Student Chapter Website : _______________________________________________________________________________
Student Chapter Executive Committee (in office during the time frame captured on this report) (type “Vacant” if position not filled):
President:
Jose Pablo Cervantes
___________________________________________
Name
E-mail
Roccio Ferron
Vice President: ___________________________________________
Secretary:
Treasurer:
jpcervantes@miners.utep.edu
________________________________________
rfferron@miners.utep.edu
________________________________________
Name
E-mail
Joshua Peterson
___________________________________________
jrpeterson@miners.utep.edu
________________________________________
Name
E-mail
Myra Guerrero
___________________________________________
mguerrero16@miners.utep.edu
________________________________________
Name
E-mail
Student Chapter Academic Sponsor (must be SEG Fellow Member in good standing):
(915)747-5596
Philip Goodell
goodell@utep.edu
__________________________________________
_________________________________
______________________
Name
E-mail
Phone
6024 Pinehurst, El Paso TX 79912
_____________________________________________________________________________
______________________
Address
Fax
Student Chapter Industry Sponsor (SEG Fellow Membership is highly recommended; Industry Sponsor should not be affiliated with the
student chapter’s institution):
pmegaw@index.com
(520)529-2231
Peter K.M. Megaw
__________________________________________
_________________________________
______________________
Name
E-mail
Phone
P.O. Box 65538, Tucson AZ 85728
(520)797-3955
_____________________________________________________________________________
______________________
Address
Fax
The University of Texas at El Paso
Sponsoring Institution or Company (name): _________________________________________________________________
Attach: 1. a list of names of all Student Chapter members (please indicate by * if SEG Student Member).
2. complete Student Chapter Membership Information form with the current Executive Committee listed on page 1.
On a separate page(s) provide a summary of student chapter annual activities:
1. Regular meetings, lectures
4. Organization of conferences, workshops, short
2. Field trips (dates, area visited, field trip leaders, numcourses (theme, number of participants, benefits
ber of participants, sponsors, benefits for students).
for students)
Note: this is not the place for a detailed field trip
5. Participation in conferences, workshops, short
report that is required from a Student Chapter who has
courses (theme, number of participants from the
received funding from the Stewart R. Wallace Fund.
Student Chapter, benefits for students)
3. If your chapter received funding from the Stewart R.
6. Fund-raising programs
Wallace Fund, please submit a separate actual
7. Other programs
accounting of how chapter funds were spent/used.
8. Future plans
June2015VS
Annual Report: 2014/2015 Term
Prepared by: Arturo Ramirez
The Society of Economic Geologists – UTEP Student Chapter Annual Report
SEG – UTEP Student Chapter
Executive Members
President
Jose Pablo Cervantes
Vice President
Rocio Ferron
Secretary
Joshua Peterson
Treasurer
Myra Guerrero
Members
Liza Ortega
Yvette Pereyra
Manuel Moncada
Jonathan Lucero
Joe Cancellare
Luis B. Martinetti
Ian Cappelle
Arturo Ramirez
Jesus Garcia
Alexandro Sandoval
Sandra Hardy
Valeria Guerrero
Chapter Meetings
The Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) Student Chapter at The University of Texas at
El Paso (UTEP) held bimonthly meetings, on Thursdays at 12:00 PM in the Geological Sciences
Building, Room 222. The meeting agendas covered topics regarding logistical preparations for
upcoming field trips, outreach activities, training sessions, and guest lectures. Other topics in the
agenda included officer elections and presentations by our members on personal experiences at
internships, conferences and field trips.
We began the Fall 2014 semester by hosting Yenlai Chee, Business Development
Geologist at Aranz Geo Limited, for a technical session on August 28th. Officer elections for the
2014/2015 term were held for Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer on September 11th. Our
chapter involvement in Earth Science Day activities were discussed, and assistance on becoming
official SEG members was given to new members on September 25th. Dr. Spencer Lucas,
paleontologist for the New Mexico Museum of Natural Sciences, gave an announced talk to our
members and details about a future field trip to Freeport-McMoRan’s El Paso Refinery & Rod
Mill were given on October 9th. On October 23rd, a power presentation on a previous field trip to
Freeport’s Sierrita and Safford porphyry deposits was given to new members by Arturo Ramirez,
and Joshua Glauch shared his personal experience as a Freeport intern to provide a context for the
upcoming field trip to Freeport’s El Paso operations. The last meeting of the Fall semester was on
November 20th where future plans for the spring semester were discussed.
We started the Spring 2015 semester on January 22nd by hosting Britt Bluemel, Geochemist
and ioGAS Product Manager at REFLEX, for a webinar on ioGAS functionalities and featured
academic diagrams. On February 19th, we hosted Ralph Stegen, VP of Exploration at FreeportMcMoRan, for a lunch meeting where he gave advice about geology in the mining industry to our
members and graduate students. On April 2nd, Arturo Ramirez gave a presentation on personal
experiences from his SEGF Student Filed Trip to Northern Chile and SEG members, who are
members of the Entrepreneurial Geosciences Club, shared their personal experiences from
attending the 2015 Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada Conference in Toronto. The
1 Spring semester concluded with a recap of our chapter activities and with officer elections for the
2015/2016 term on April 23rd.
Field Trips & Conferences
SEG 2014
Keystone, CO. September 27th –30th, 2014
The 2014 Society of Economic Geologist conference was held in Keystone, Colorado at
the Keystone Conference Center where SEG-UTEP student members Joshua Glauch, Jade Brush,
Alexandro Sandoval, Adrian Gutierrez, Arturo Ramirez, and SEG academic advisor Dr. Philip
Goodell attended four days of the conference. Our SEG-UTEP Student Chapter had a booth to
display a poster of our 2014 field trips, guest lecturers, and conferences attended. Dr. Philip
Goodell and Adrian Gutierrez gave poster presentations of their research work on Monday, 29th.
This year’s main theme revolved around the topic of “Building Exploration Capability for the 21st
Century” with poster exhibitions and technical lectures that cover various aspects that focused on
this topic. We started the conference by attending the Student Mentoring Forum on Saturday, 27th
at 2:00 PM where we heard the SEG presidential address from Judith A. Kinnaird followed by a
forum between a panel of seven industry advisors and students. This forum gave students the
opportunity to ask questions concerning the current mining industry crisis in regards to starting a
new career. The panel shared their outlook and gave positive feedback to students. The main take
home message was that students need to be passionate, hard workers and good team workers to
have a successful mining career. The day ended with a reception in the Exhibition Room that
allowed to network in a friendly environment. This was also a great opportunity to identify which
companies were present at the conference so we could plan our schedule to visit them at their
booths.
The conference was sub-divided into six themes: Theme 1 – Fundamental Advances in
Economic Geology, Theme 2 – Deposit Footprints, Theme 3 – Mineral System Science, Theme 4
– Innovations in Exploration Technology, Theme 5 – Exploration Management and Targeting, and
Theme 6 – Case Studies of 21st Century Exploration Success. The technical sessions were given
by presenters from both industry and academia. The official start day was on Sunday 28th. Our
chapter members had their own schedule to attend the technical sessions of their interest. The
session topics included porphyry systems, geochemical and geophysical characterizations of
mineral deposits, structural controls of deposits, and current 3D modeling softwares. They also
attended technical sessions given by keynote speakers which were interesting to hear and very
stimulating. Attending this type of conferences provides the opportunity to learn and experience
how the scientific community in the mining industry communicate and present their work. The
poster exhibition began on Monday, 29th at 4:00 PM where again each member had their own
schedule to visit the poster presentations of their interest. It is a great opportunity for students to
present their work in a professional environment with people who are knowledgeable about the
specific research topic. At the conference, Adrian Gutierrez presented his research on “3D gravity
model of the Copper Flat porphyry deposit in Hillsboro, New Mexico”. Also, Dr. Philip Goodell
presented his poster titled “Round Top Mountain, Texas: Geology, geochemistry, and genesis of
the unique and largest HREE deposit in the USA”. Our members who are yet to present a poster
were able to experience the industry and academic environment at the conference, thus motivating
them to continue their career path as a result of this exposure.
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During the course of the conference members of our chapter stood by our booth and talked
to interested attendees about our university and chapter activities. It was very important to have a
booth at this conference because our chapter got exposure to the industry and other student chapters
as they can see that we are active and showing interest. This was very productive because student
chapters approached us with interest in doing joint field trips which is something that we are also
interested in. Joint field trips with other student chapters are a great opportunity for our members
to meet other students with whom they may collaborate on future jobs or school projects.
The 2014 SEG Conference was an excellent opportunity to meet important people from the
industry and academia. It was a good impression on us that many of the people we met had the
disposition and time to talk to us in a very friendly manner. During the conference we ran into our
Industry Advisor Dr. Peter Megaw which was presenting a poster on a new discovery his company
MAG Silver Corp. made. Other important people we met were David Giles and Guillermo
Gastelum from Fresnillo Plc, which took the time to converse with us and exchange contact
information. As a group we talked to companies such as BHP Billiton, Freeport-McMoRan, and
Rio Tinto which are giants in the mining industry. Their personnel were friendly in sharing
interesting information about their companies and encouraged us to apply for internships. We also
talked to companies that provide services to the mining industry through softwares and
applications. We met personnel from Leapfrog Geo 3D, REFLEX, Micromine, and Maptek. These
are student friendly companies who developed mining softwares which allow academic institutions
to obtain licenses at low costs and in some cases free of charge.
We hope to have more participation from our student chapter members at these types of
conferences. It is definitely an important experience to have before graduating as you will meet
people with whom you will maintain a business or academic relationship in the future. This was a
very productive conference to our SEG-UTEP Student Chapter and it will allow us to grow
academically.
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Photo of SEG student members with Industry Advisor Dr. Peter Megaw and Academic Advisor Dr. Philip Goodell
Freeport-McMoRan – Rod Mill & Refinery Field Trip
El Paso, TX. October 30th, 2014
The SEG-UTEP Student Chapter members and academic advisor Dr. Philip Goodell visited
Freeport-McMoRan’s El Paso Operations – Rod Mill & Refinery on Thursday, October 30th. This
field trip was accomplished by the excellent logistical efforts of Juan Sanchez, Director of
Customer Technical Marketing at the El Paso operations, who arranged the visit and forward to
his superiors our interest of hosting, in our department, personnel from Freeport’s geology or
exploration departments. The Rod Mill & Refinery visit was led by Bradford Wesstrom, Senior
Process Engineer, who demonstrated enthusiasm in showing us the process of the electrolytic
refinery plant and the rod mill facility. Our chapter had visited Freeport’s Sierrita and Safford
porphyry deposits on April 25th – 26th, 2014 where we learned about the oxide ore extraction,
crushing, and leaching processes. During the mine site visits we also learned about the
hydrometallurgical process of solvent extraction and electro winning (SX/EW) to produce pure
copper cathodes by an electrolytic procedure. Having this understanding before visiting the Rod
Mill & Refinery was exceptional to our learning experience at Freeport’s El Paso operations.
However, the El Paso operations refine copper anode that is produced at their Miami, Arizona
operation.
The start time of the visit was at 1:00 PM. Student members drove their personal vehicles
from UTEP to the front gate of the El Paso operations where we check-in with the security
personnel. We then proceeded to a conference room where protection gear was issued to us. Here,
we watched a presentation video about the company’s sustainable development with the
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community and environment. Then we were given safety instructions to follow during our visit.
Following the video, was a power point presentation given by Bradford on the company’s facilities
and worldwide operations, methods of ore extraction, and differences in processing oxide ore
versus sulfide ore. The facility tour began at the electrolytic refinery plant, which was not in
operation at the time. However, Bradford was very thorough in his explanation about the process
of obtaining copper dissolved from the anode plates and precipitated in the cathodes. From here
we were taken to an outside storage were they stocked copper anodes waiting to be used in the
electrolytic refining facility. We then walked towards the rod mill facility were we saw how copper
cathode plates are piled to later on be picked up by a fork lift to deposit into the furnace shaft. The
copper cathodes came from different mine sites, therefore, they had different properties, which in
some cases allowed for better melting in the furnace. Then we walked through the rod mill facility
where we saw a channel of molten copper coming out of the furnace and going through the process
of producing copper rod. At a certain point during the process, the molten copper is cooled down
then it passes through a machine that makes the rod at a specific diameter, which later on is coiled
and stacks into large copper rod spools. We were then taken to a storage facility where they kept
the rod spools ready to be shipped out. Here we were allowed to take a group photo. After the
group photo, we made our way back to the conference room to return the protection gear. Before
leaving the facilities, Bradford expressed his availability to continue to lead tours for future SEGUTEP Student Chapter members. He was a very attentive host by sharing personal experiences
and professional advice to our members.
The SEG-UTEP Student Chapter greatly appreciates Freeport-McMoRan’s willingness in
granting us opportunities to visit their properties in order to gain knowledge and experience about
the different operations within the mining industry.
Group photo by the copper rods at Freeport-McMoRan’s El Paso Operations
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SEGF – Student Field Trip 14
Copper-Gold-Silver-Molybdenum Metallogeny of Northern Chile
March 6th – 14th, 2015
Arturo Ramirez, SEG-UTEP Student Chapter President, was selected to participate on a
field trip to Northern Chile along with fifteen students from worldwide universities. This was a
wonderful experience as all participants shared the passion for geology related to mineral deposits
and mineral exploration. Arturo’s main interested was to expand his knowledge and experience
regarding the formation of ore deposits in a geologic environment different than in North America.
The student participants visited six major deposits of Cu, Au, Ag, and Mo on this fourteenth in the
series of SEG Foundation-sponsored student field trips. The deposits that were visited included
porphyry, skarn, manto/replacement, epithermal vein and breccia style deposits providing a wide
range of ore deposit characteristics to learn from. The trip officially started in Copiapo, Chile on
March 6th with an interesting evening lecture at the Geology Department of Universidad de
Atacama, followed by a reception where participants had their first taste of Chilean food through
their delicious traditional empanadas and pastries. They had the opportunity to meet and greet
Chilean geology students and learn from them as well.
Over a period of three days,
participants visited Pucobre’s Punta del
Cobre mine, Gold Fields Exploration
drill core shed, and S.C. Minera
Atacama Kozan’s Atacama Kozan
mine. On March 10th, they traveled by
road to the small coast town of Taltal,
Chile. In Taltal, they visited KGHM
Minera Franke’s Franke mine. On that
evening they were hosted by Capstone
Mining Corp. for an afternoon lecture
followed by a Chilean parrillada with
Arturo Ramirez at the overlook to the Guanaco open-pit
bread and pebre. On March 12th, they
departed towards Antofagasta, making a stop along the way at Guanaco Compañia Minera
Limitada’s Guanaco mine. In Antofagasta, they visited Glencore’s Lomas Bayas mine to finalize
the mine site visits. The six days of mine site visits consisted of examination of open-pit exposures,
drill cores and outcrops which focused on recognizing characteristics of porphyry, skarn and
epithermal mineral assemblages. This was very productive since participants’ geochemical and
mineralogical understanding of alteration assemblages and hydrothermal processes were
strengthened by the chemical reaction exercises and the group discussions. The participants also
had field-based discussions of the local and regional geologic setting which provided a context for
the mine site observations. At the mine sites, presentations by mine personnel reviewed the
geology of the mine, ore reserves, resources evaluation, and mining operations. The field trip
concluded with a closing dinner hosted by the SEG Foundation where Certificates of Completion
were awarded. Participation on this type of field trips is academically important as they provide a better
understanding about the formation of ore deposits. Arturo was exposed to the geochemical
characteristics of ore deposits in Northern Chile to compare and contrast them with the ore deposits
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of North America, specifically the metallogenic provinces of the Sierra Madre Occidental in
Southwest Chihuahua, Mexico as it is the study area of his graduate thesis project.
An expression of gratitude goes to The SEG Foundation, SEG members and corporate
contributors for their generous funding assistance. Many thanks to Dr. William X. Chavez and
Erich U. Petersen for their efforts in organizing this trip. Thank you to Vicky Sternicki for her
Group photo of participants, industry mentors, fieldtrip leaders and mine personnel at the Punta del Cobre District.
logistical efforts. This was a wonderful and productive academic experience for Arturo. Hopefully
these field trips continue to be offered in the future so that more students can experience this
amazing opportunity.
Technical Sessions
Ralph Stegen, VP of Exploration at Freeport-McMoRan
February 19th, 2015
An increased partnership between the SEG-UTEP Student Chapter and FreeportMcMoRan was initiated from our interest in this company. Our student member participation in
previous visits to Freeport’s facilities led to the coordination of a technical session for a chapter
meeting at the UTEP Geological Sciences Department on February 19th, 2015. In this occasion,
we were privileged to host Ralph Stegen, VP of Exploration at Freeport-McMoRan, at our
department for a lunch meeting and a departmental seminar talk for chapter members, graduate
students, and faculty.
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Ralph’s visit began by having breakfast with
our Geology Department Chair and our Academic
Advisor Dr. Philip Goodell. After breakfast he
met with the geology faculty. At noon, the SEGUTEP Student Chapter hosted a lunch, meet and
greet for Ralph, where he had a discussion of the
mining industry and shared his knowledge and
experience with us. After lunch, he met with the
Dean of College of Science. At 3:30 PM he gave
a seminar talk in Room 123 on the “Climax
Ralph Stegen’s inspiring presentation.
Porphyry Mo Deposit, Colorado: Geology,
Mineralization, Alteration” to graduate students and faculty. After his seminar talk Arturo Ramirez
awarded Ralph a Certificate of Appreciation for taking the time to visit our department and sharing
his talents with us. The seminar talk was followed by a reception in Room 310, where students and
faculty had more time to ask questions and chat with Ralph in a relaxed environment. The day
ended with a dinner at Gonzalos G & R Restaurant, where student members had more time to
network with Ralph.
The following morning Philip
Goodell led a field trip to the Round Top
HREE deposit in Sierra Blanca, Texas
where Ralph was our invited guest. Six
members of our chapter and Research
Assistant Professor Dr. Gail Arnold
participated in this field trip. The field trip
began at the Texas Rare Earth Resources
(TRER) office in Sierra Blanca, where we
met Dan Gorski, President and CEO at
TRER, who accompany us during the first
part of the field trip. At the TRER office,
Dan provided us with the local geologic Road side geology near the Cave Peak deposit.
background, an overview of the property,
and gave a discussion on the possible future market of HREE’s and the company. We then drove
to the Round Top deposit as Phil gave a discussion about the regional geology of the Hudspeth
County along the way. Our first stop was along the road to Round Top where Dan commented
about the drilling campaigns that have been carried out. The second stop was by the Round Top
dome complex where Dan, Phil and Ralph had discussions in regards to the geochemical
characterization of the extrusive bodies. From here we walked to a couple of extrusive outcrop
exposures and collected samples.
On our way back to El Paso, we made a quick stop by Freeport-McMoRan’s Cave Peak
porphyry Mo deposit along TX 54 N. Access was limited, therefore, we had to resort to roadside
geology to receive Ralph’s discussion about the property, geology, and mineralization. He showed
us geologic maps and cross-sections of the deposit, which aid in the visualizations of the main
intrusive bodies at Cave Peak. This was the final stop before heading back to El Paso. This was an
excellent experience for the members of our student chapter as they formed part of the ongoing
geologic discussions on this field trip and gave us the opportunity to hear opinions from experts in
the field of exploration geology.
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Group photo near the Cave Peak porphyry Mo deposit along TX 54 N.
Training Sessions
This year the SEG-UTEP Student Chapter hosted two training sessions on leading
softwares that are widely used in the mineral and exploration industries. The first session consisted
on a webinar on ioGAS, an exploratory data analysis software for the detection of patterns,
anomalies and relationships in geochemical data. The second session comprised of a three-day
training course on Leapfrog Geo, a 3D geological modelling software. These two softwares share
a live link that allows for spatial representation of geochemical trends.
The ioGAS webinar was imparted by Britt Bluemel, Geochemist and ioGAS Product
Manager at REFLEX, on January 22nd, 2015 in the BioAnnex Building, Room BE300. She gave
us a quick overview of ioGAS, the software’s functionalities, and the featured academic diagrams.
Britt was also facilitated the process of obtaining an ioGAS academic license for the UTEP
Geology Department, available to all geology students. The contact with REFLEX came from
attending the 2014 SEG conference where chapter members approached the company at their
booth to request information about the software and academic licenses.
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The Leapfrog Geo training
session was taught by Yenlai Chee,
Business Development Geologist at
Aranz Geo Limited, on February 9th –
11th, 2015. Yenlai committed herself to
impart this training session on a
previous visit to our department on
August 2014. The training session was
limited to 10 participants, therefore,
interested student members had to fill
out a short application form to be
selected. Academic Advisor Dr. Philip
Goodell and Professor Dr. Terry Pavlis Leapfrog Geo short course.
participated in the training course along with the student members. The three-day course consisted
of Leapfrog Geo fundamentals with exercises on building an intrusive, weathering, and combined
model with a sample drill hole database. We also learned how to build 3D models from 2D maps
using GIS and structural data. We practice on exercises to build stratigraphic models and also
created vein models. The training also consisted in creating cross-sections, images, videos and
Photo of the Leapfrog Geo short course participants with Yenlai Chee.
scenes for presentation purposes. These training sessions expanded our skills and enhanced our
resumes for future employment in the mining and exploration industries.
Outreach Activities
During this past year, the SEG-UTEP Student Chapter was very active in participating at
outreach activities targeting the youth in the El Paso community. It is in our interest to promote
the geosciences by introducing different geological topics in ways that kids may retain the
information and knowledge.
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The UTEP Geological Sciences Department celebrated Earth Science Day on Saturday,
October 4th, 2014. It is an annual event where our department promotes the geosciences by
organizing hands on activities for the local community. Our departments hosts a complimentary
BBQ for all attendees. There is participation from all faculty and graduate students, as well as
geology clubs and student chapters. The SEG-UTEP Student Chapter chose to do the “Edible
Rocks” activity, where we illustrated the earth’s structure and types of rocks using M&M’s for the
earth, Snickers as igneous intrusive, 3 Musketeer’s as igneous extrusive, chocolate covered
pretzels as metamorphic, and wafer cookies as sedimentary. We also did the “Cookie Tectonics”
activity to demonstrate the types of tectonic boundaries with Oreo’s cookies by braking in half the
top cookie layer to show plate kinematics. Both kids and adults seemed to enjoy this activity very
much as they would learned about geological processes and at the end have a sweet treat.
Gold panning activities for 1st grade students of Elfida P. Chavez Elementary School.
Some of the audience present at the event were boy scouts leaders and elementary school
teachers that were very interested in us doing the activity for their cub scouts and students. We
were more than happy to do this activity for them to continue to reach out and promote the
geosciences. By doing these hands on activities we helped three cub scouts obtain their geology
badge by covering a list of topics they needed to learn from in order to earn it. Everyone was very
content and enthusiastic by learning about geology.
Arturo Ramirez was in charge of organizing a visit to the UTEP Geological Sciences
Department for the first grade students of Elfida P. Chavez Elementary School on April 15, 2015.
He coordinated with the UTEP Geology Club, the student chapter for The Society of Exploration
Geophysicists, the Entrepreneurial Geosciences Club, and student members of the SEG-UTEP
Student Chapter to have hands on activities and tours for our young guests. Our chapter did the
“Edible Rocks” and “Cookie Tectonics” activities for them. Student were allowed to collect rock
samples from a rock pile, we call the “rock cemetery”, located outside of our department. By the
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end of the day they left with a big smile. It is very rewarding for us to be able to teach young
students about the geosciences and provide an enjoyable learning experience for them.
Luis B. Martinetti and Arturo Ramirez visited Sunrise Elementary School in Chaparral,
New Mexico on Earth Day, April 22nd, 2015. They were invited to do three presentations to
demonstrate the earth’s structure, geological processes, and types of rocks to a group of third
graders, who were covering geoscience topics in their classrooms that week. They performed the
“Edible Rocks” and “Cookie Tectonics” activities for them, which students seemed to appreciate
very much. Being able to promote the geosciences has been a very enjoyable experience for the
SEG-UTEP Student Chapter.
Group photo with 1st grade students of Elfida P. Chavez Elementary School.
Fundraising
Joshua Glauch donated chalcanthite, hanksite, and rare pink halite from Death Valley,
California, that were auctioned or sold during Earth Science Day on October 4th, 2014.
Yvette Pereyra donated Brazilian amethyst geodes, bought at the Tucson Gem & Mineral
Show, to fundraise in order to make a donation to our department’s colloquium committee.
Future Plans
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The SEG-UTEP Student Chapter would like to increase the number of official
memberships and participation by continuing to recruit new members. It is in our interest to
continue to establish new industry relationships that would grant us the opportunity to learn from
them. We will strengthen our partnership with Freeport-McMoRan by continuing to invite
personnel at our meetings and organize field trips to their facilities as it is the best way to learn
how the mining and exploration industries operate. We will encourage our members to participate
at SEG conferences and to apply to SEG Student Field Trips as they are excellent settings to build
industry relationships. We will also continue to do outreach activities for the El Paso community
as one of our objectives is to promote the geosciences.
Acknowledgements
The SEG-UTEP Student Chapter would like to thank all its members for their participation
and their effort to improve this organization, as well as the sponsors who show their continuous
support. We would also like to thank the following individuals and organizations:
Dr. Philip Goodell for his encouragement to keep this organization going.
Dr. Peter Megaw for providing support as our industry advisor.
Luis B. Martinetti for representing well our chapter and his support as Vice President.
Chloe O. Glover for her assistance as Secretary and providing summaries of our chapter meetings.
Yvette Pereyra for managing our account, serving as Treasurer and editing this report.
Josh Glauch for sharing his internship experiences with our student members and for donating
mineral specimens for fundraising.
Yenlai Chee for sharing her knowledge and experience regarding the mining and exploration
industries, teaching a three-day short course on Leapfrog Geo 3D and continuing support.
Britt Bluemel for imparting a webinar on ioGAS during a chapter meeting and for her assistance
in the academic license acquisition.
Vicki Sternicki for her support as coordinator of the SEG student programs.
Dan Gorski for granting us access to the TRER offices and his discussion on the Round Top
deposit.
Ralph Stegen for taking the time to share his knowledge and experience with our members and
joining us on the field trip to the Round Top deposit.
Juan Sanchez for his coordinating efforts in arranging the Refinery & Rod Mill field trip.
Bradford Wesstrom for being an excellent host and leading the Refinery & Rod Mill field trip.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc. for granting us access to their facilities and being an excellent source
to our learning and understanding of mining and exploration operations.
UTEP Registered Student Organization for providing guidance on the organization’s logistics,
and training on the minetracker website.
UTEP Student Government Association for providing funds and support to attend conferences.
SEG Foundation for hosting events and being the main financial sponsor through the Stewart R.
Wallace Fund and funding assistance for the Student Field Trip to Northern Chile.
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