Education & Training
Record attendance at final NURGS course
Dr Steve Hill (Uni Adelaide), NURGS co-convener in full swing at the Junction Mine, Broken Hill, explaining the need for accurate regolith knowledge when exploring for mineral deposits. Nearly 100 students from ANU, Adelaide, Melbourne and Monash universities attended this one-day Broken Hill line of lode regolith tour as part of NURGS.
Around 100 students attended LEME's final annual undergraduate regolith geology field camp between 9-13 July at the Fowlers Gap Research Station 112 km north of Broken Hill - a new attendance record for the field camp.
Better known as the National Undergraduate Regolith Geology School (NURGS), the course took a selection of undergraduate geology students from Australian universities and put them through an intensive one-week regolith training session.
NURGS is the final course of the Mineral Council of Australia's (MCA) Minerals Tertiary Education Council (MTEC) Program. Since 2001, LEME has delivered annual Honours-level training courses through the MTEC Program to students and minerals industry geoscientists on:
- Regolith Geology and Geochemistry (RGG)
- Regolith Mapping and Field techniques (RMF)
- Introduction to Hydrogeochemistry (HGC)
- Environmental Mineralogy (EMN)
- Advanced Remote Sensing for Mineral Exploration and Natural Resource Management (RSM).
Coordinated by LEME's Education and Training Program Leader Dr Ian Roach, NURGS along with the other MTEC courses, have been very popular with many attendees going on to pursue further studies or careers in regolith geology.
“The introductory courses provide students with an appreciation of regolith geology and its applications”, Dr Roach said.
“As they have been so successful, we are currently investigating new funding arrangements, so the courses can continue in another form after LEME finishes in June next year.”
Course activities around the Broken Hill area received media coverage with an article appearing in the local newspaper, the Barrier Daily Truth, and a radio interview by Dr Steve Hill, NURGS co-convener at The University of Adelaide, with ABC Regional Radio in Broken Hill.
Further information about LEME's MTEC Courses:
http://www.crcleme.org.au/Educ/MTECcourses.html
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