Dr. Peter Hollings

Research Interests

Much of my current research focuses on the application of whole rock geochemistry and petrology to the exploration for ore deposits. My Masters students have completed theses on the petrogenesis of PGE mineralisation at two deposits in NW Ontario, nitrogen isotopes at the Musselwhite gold mine and VMS mineralisation in the Shebanowan greenstone belt. Current students are investigating VMS, gold and PGE deposits, diamondiferous lamprophyres in the Wawa and Kirkland Lake areas and porphyry deposits in the Baguio District of the Philippines. In addition I have a number of ongoing projects investigating the rocks of the Midcontinent Rift in collaboration with the Ontario Geological Survey.

I am involved with research into the genesis of giant porphyry copper deposits in South America and the Philippines. I became involved in this research while an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Ore Deposit Research (CODES) at the University of Tasmania, Australia. I was a member of a large research team investigating Chilean porphyry deposits as part of AMIRA Project P511 - Hydrothermal systems, Giant Ore Deposits and a New Paradigm for Predictive Mineral Exploration. This project was completed in June 2002 and the results have recently been published in a special issue of Economic Geology. I am currently collaborating with CODES researchers in a study of the gold and porphyry copper deposits of the Baguio District in the Philippines as part of AMIRA Project P765a.

I continue to pursue research projects initiated as part of my PhD, where I investigated the geochemistry of the Uchi Subprovince in northern Ontario. This study was part of a larger project intended to enhance exploration strategies for VMS deposits in Canada. My current research is focussed on an integrated study of the geochemistry and sedimentology of the older components (>2.8 Ga) of the Uchi Subprovince undertaken in collaboration with Dr Phil Fralick.

I am also interested in the field of environmental geology, having been involved in research into acid mine drainage at uranium mines in northern Saskatchewan and the Renison Bell tin mine in western Tasmania. Research undertaken at the Cluff Lake Uranium mine as part of a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Saskatchewan demonstrated the viability of using kinetic cells to quantify oxygen consumption rates as a means of measuring sulphate release rates in waste rock piles. Research on the Renison Bell tin mine was undertaken by Sarah Gilbert, an Honours student at the University of Tasmania, which led to a publication discussing effects of hardpan layers on the water chemistry of pyrrhotite-rich tailings material.

I also serve as the NSERC representative for Lakehead University. In this role I promote science and engineering both on campus and off, emphasising NSERC's role in supporting these disciplines. I have a small budget to do this and would encourage anyone organising events in these fields to contact me as I may be able to help. 

I am currently an Associate Editor for the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.  

Publications

An up to date list of my publications can be accessed on my Publications Page.  

Teaching

I am currently teaching the folowing courses at Lakehead University:

• Geology 2213/2215 - Igneous Processes and Products
• Geology 2318 - Field Mapping
• Geology 3311/3312 - Environmental Geology
• Geology 4215 - Advanced Igneous Petrology
  

Web pages and downloads for some of these courses are available at the links below. You will need your Lakehead username and password to access these pages.
 

Personal Interests

I have been an active caver since my days as an undergraduate student at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College where I was introduced into caving by a group known as the Moles. Since then I have continued to cave with the Proyecto Espeologico Purificación (PEP), an eclectic group who for the past 25 years have been exploring the Purifcación karst. The Purificación karst area straddles the border between the southern parts of the Mexican states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León. It comprises the front ranges of the Sierra Madre Oriental which rise from an elevation of 400 meters at Ciudad Victoria to an altitude of 3500 meters on Cerro el Viejo, the area's highest peak. To date over 400 caves have been located in the project area with the longest, Sistema Purificación now over 97 kilometres long and nearly one kilometre deep. I have also been fortunate enough to explore caves in Belize, Tasmania and Montana.

I have been a regular contributor to the Death Coral Caver the annual publication of the PEP and have also written articles on Mexican caving which have been published in a variety of caving magazines, in the NSS News, and also on the web.

I live in Thunder Bay with my wife Jill and our dachshunds.