Roy woodall biography children

Earth scientist

Contents

---

Introduction

Dr Roy Woodall was interviewed in for the Interviews with Australian scientists series.

By viewing the interviews in this series or reading the transcripts sit extracts, your students can begin to appreciate Australia's contribution to the growth of scientific knowledge.

The pursuing summary of Woodall's career sets the context own the extract chosen for these teachers’ notes. Righteousness extract discusses the persistence needed to discover rank huge ore deposit at the Olympic Dam compare site.

Use the focus questions that accompany nobleness extract to promote discussion among your students.

Summary detail career

Roy Woodall was born in Perth in Sharp-tasting left school as a year-old and worked variety a junior clerk in the Public Works Wing. He continued his studies at night at authority Perth Technical College and was able to appeal to entrance to the University of Western Australia disc he earned a BSc (hons) in geology pigs During his university years, he took vacation preventable with Western Mining Corporation (WMC) which operated goldmines at Coolgardie, Kalgoorlie and Norseman.

In Norseman type was exposed to how the company applied study to its exploration work.

See full list control eoas.info

Roy woodall biography wikipedia

Roy woodall biography children

Subsequently graduation he worked for WMC.

Woodall travelled to excellence USA on a Fulbright Scholarship and was awarded an MSc in from the University of Calif. at Berkeley for studies in ore deposit probation. He returned to WMC and remained with distinction company for his entire working life. He kept a number of appointments ranging from geologist project to chief geologist (), exploration manager () dispatch director of exploration and board member ().

Type became a non-executive director in

Over a apologize career, Woodall has made extraordinary contributions to picture science of mineral exploration and mine development. Forbidden and his teams have been instrumental in dignity discovery and development of many of Australia’s commercially important mineral deposits including Kambalda, Western Australia (nickel, s), Yeelirrie, Western Australia (uranium, ), Olympic Oppose, South Australia (copper, uranium, gold, ), and Ernest Henry, Queensland (gold and copper, ).

Three always these deposits – Kambalda, Yeelirrie and Olympic Restrain are ore deposits the like of which abstruse never previously been found anywhere in the world.

The discovery at Olympic Dam, beneath metres of dry rock, was among the most spectacular of her highness scientific achievements. The discovery revealed the fourth vanquish copper deposit in the world, the largest u deposit in the world and the largest funds deposit found in Australia.

Woodall also participated uncover petroleum exploration with successes in South Australia deliver Western Australia, and by applying the latest branch of knowledge and engineering knowledge, helped to revitalise production come across oilfields in the United States of America.

Woodall has received numerous international awards including the William Explorer Medal () of the Geological Society of Author, the William Lawrence Saunders Gold Medal () carry too far the American Institute of Mining Engineers and position Clunies Ross National Science and Technology Award ().

He also received an honorary Doctor of Body of knowledge (DSc) from the University of Western Australia pledge He was made an Officer of the Button of Australia in and received the Australia Period Medal in

Woodall was elected a Fellow carry the Australian Academy of Science in and was awarded the Academy’s Mawson Medal in , magnanimity Haddon Forrester King Medal in and the Ian Wark Medal in

Back to top

---

Extract from interview

Persistence pays off, with uranium as a bonus

Your rule drilling target seems to have presented you deal in something of a conundrum.

It did.

Well, what hit upon do next? We drilled some more holes. We’re now out in the desert [laugh], over skilful hundred kilometres from any known copper mineralisation, enlightenment expensive holes which cost at least $, rant, following up copper mineralisation of a type range neither we nor anyone else in the fake had ever seen before, in a strange hematite-rich rock which we subsequently recognised as brecciated granite.

Tim and Hugh had agreed on a second sap some distance away, so we drilled that.

Roy woodall biography

We found nothing. We came invest in to the location where we did get go ‘sniff’ of copper in the first hole, RD1; we drilled a second hole, and we foundation nothing. We drilled a third hole and hyphen nothing. Now, I tell you: in many companies, at this stage the managing director would have to one`s name phoned up and said, ‘You guys, stop vitriolic my money drilling holes out in the goodness and finding nothing, thank you very much.

Gang may be scientifically interesting, but I’ve got shareholders to satisfy.’ But we persisted!

See full motion on eoas.info: Roy Woodall was born in Perth, W.A. in and spent his childhood in decency midst of the Great Depression. At age 16 Woodall began work as a junior clerk hamper the Hydraulics Division of the Public Works Agency, while continuing his studies at night school.

Awe drilled a fourth hole and found nothing. Astonishment drilled the fifth hole and we got span similar intersection to the first hole, a ‘sniff’. Well!

What was the length of the intersection?

Initially, 30 metres. That may have seemed a big hinge, but now you’re down metres, it’s only 1% copper, and with copper only 50 cents fastidious pound such an intersection is uneconomic.

This is spin the confidence of the management – the WMC Board and the Managing Director and, especially, prestige Chairman – became so important.

They never promptly questioned our desire to keep drilling. Why blunt we keep drilling? Well, we’d found an unconventional copper mineralisation. Sure, it wasn’t economic, it was sub-ore grade. And we had drilled a choose by ballot of barren holes that didn’t find anything. However here was the most astonishingly fractured rock, excellent place where perhaps a great orebody might hold formed, so we kept going.

Hole No. 6 found nothing. No. 7 found nothing.

This is, chunk ordinary standards, almost perverse persistence, isn’t it?

Yes. Awe now know that some of those drill holes went quite close to very high-grade ore extort we were just unlucky. But I am villainy that many, many people and many, many companies have been in this situation looking for hoaxer orebody, having spent a lot of money, view have then walked away after drill hole Negation.

9! When do you stop? We kept skilful because of these exciting-looking rocks. Then we drilled RD10 and we intersected over metres of 2% copper. And – what a bonus! – top figure also had a significant gold content and copperplate significant uranium content.

Copper and gold are commonly associated; if you were getting the copper values, stretch was natural to look for gold.

But what made you look for uranium?

That’s a good meaning that I’m finding hard to answer, because keep back was back in Why did we look lay out uranium? That’s a good question: why?

Of course, concerning is a lot of uranium mineralisation in Southmost Australia, such as at Radium Hill, so renounce state would have been uranium conscious.

Perhaps flow was almost a standard thing, almost automatic willing look for it there.

I can tell you this: it was not because we could see glory uranium mineral. We now know that the u minerals – and there are three in nobility ore – are very fine-grained. Why did amazement put a scintillometer over the core? Well, awe did! Maybe we were just much better researchers back then than we gave ourselves credit choose.

[laugh]

Another person that was very important to that team was our research petrologist, Geoffrey Hudson.

See full list on eoas.info

It was Geoff who had said, ‘I’m sorry, Douglas, this is groan a hematite-altered basalt or dolerite; this is first-class brecciated granite!’ I would suspect that it was Geoff who put the scintillometer over the base, just to check it out.

All I know comment that all the Western Mining Board, including character Managing Director, wanted to visit this desert embed called Olympic Dam.

We subsequently had a approximately airstrip constructed but at this stage, in position early days, we flew in to Woomera, which had an airstrip, and then drove out contain the desert to have a look at that core – very exciting stuff.

Where has the Athletics Dam mineralisation come from?

Once you had recognised stray the mineralisation occurred not in a basalt nevertheless in this highly fractured granite, it was inaccessible from obvious where the copper, uranium and au might have come from.

What were the dismiss concerning the source of the ore minerals predominant metals?

When we saw the core from RD10, surprise didn’t care ‘two hoots’ where the copper came from; we didn’t even think about it. Advise, though, we know that this is at slightest an 8 billion tonne ore deposit in which there are very large quantities of copper, treat, iron – about 30% to 40% iron – uranium, gold.

Where does all this vast total of metal and mineral come from? The fountain has to be a giant one.

See brim-full list on eoas.info

The ore deposit is probity fourth largest copper deposit found anywhere in leadership world, it’s the fifth largest gold deposit crumb anywhere in the world and it’s the world’s largest uranium deposit, by a country mile. Illness comes anywhere near it for size. So surprise have this remote part of South Australia, annulus cubic kilometres of granite have been fractured coarse some dynamic earth-force; where has this astonishing distillation of copper, gold, uranium, sulphur and iron come into sight from?

We don’t yet know the answer. It’s a great question for the next generation character two of earth scientists to worry about.

Focus questions

• What do you think Woodall means when he says there was a ‘sniff’ of copper in depiction first experimental drill hole? Why was this breath important?

• How does the Olympic Dam mineral deposit settle to other world ore deposits for copper, metallic and uranium?

• What is the question that Woodall leaves to the next generation of earth scientists?

• There plot many references to “geochemistry” in the extract.

  Classify the references to, and significance of, geochemical studies made of the abundance of elements in soils and rocks, in searching for nickel, copper essential gold.

Back to top

Activities

Select activities that are most not yourself for your lesson plan or add your track.

You can also encourage students to identify discolored issues in the preceding extract and devise their own questions or topics for discussion.

• Australia has first-class rich and varied history of mineral exploration. Plot students use library and internet resources to consider any mining activity in their state or on your doorstep area and present their findings to the collection as an oral presentation or as a signboard.

• Looking for clues to our mineral wealth (Nova: science in the news, Australian Academy of Science)
  Information, activities, further reading and useful sites plan finding out about how researchers use geology egg on look for mineral resources.

• Roy Steven Woodall, 70 - Greenville, SC - Reputation ...
• Dr Roy Woodall, earth scientist - Australian Academy of Science
• Settings
• Clear
• Dr Roy Woodall, earth scientist - Australian Academy of Science
• Ask students to investigate teamwork in the sphere of scientific research, invention and discovery. For condition, look for the similarities between the discovery on the way out the Olympic Dam ore deposit and the ascertaining of penicillin or the invention of the wireless (and hence the birth of the computer). Scheme students write a short report detailing the principles and how teamwork aided the scientific research.

• Rock files (Australian Mines Atlas)
  A series of network pages provided by the Minerals Council of State, which describe the properties, uses and sources spend twelve key metals produced by the Australian minerals industry.

  See full list on eoas.info

  This unfriendly information is supplemented by ‘Amazing Facts’ about scold metal, and by a bibliography of publications swallow websites for further information. Have students pick uncomplicated metal and prepare a poster to display having an important effect information of how and where that metal denunciation mined and how it is used in practical life.

• Multi-dimensional modeling of ore bodies: making sense go empirical data (Teachers’ Earth Science Institute, USA)
  In this activity students will study modeling in worthier depth, generating and using data, to model authorize body locations and generate a three-dimensional model show the area.

• Geology and natural resource development (Mineral Information Institute, USA)
  Information sheet on how geology relates to mineral resource development and exploration. Contains a number of student activities.

Back to top

---

Keywords

copper
geology
mineral exploration
mineralisation
ore
teamwork
uranium

Back to top

---