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Senior Geologist

Employer
KoBold Metals
Location
United States, Canada or Zambia
Salary
Commensurate with experience
Closing date
Apr 23, 2021

About the company

KoBold Metals is a mineral exploration company created to increase the ethical supply of critical materials, including Ni, Co, Cu, and Li, that are needed to build electric vehicles and renewable energy storage. Many new mines will be needed if electric vehicles are to become widespread, but before new ore deposits can be mined, they must be found.

KoBold’s objective is to make more discoveries with fewer failures by drawing on both world-class expertise in exploration geoscience and machine learning and other scientific computing techniques. KoBold employees’ equity ownership in the company enables everyone on the team to share in the value we create through our discoveries.

Our technology includes a comprehensive data system and a broad suite of analytical tools that helps guide our decisions from concept generation to drill testing to resource expansion to  mine development and operations. Our data platform, TerraShed™, aggregates, structures, and QCs vast collections of scientific data and makes it rapidly available for visualization and analysis. Our suite of algorithms, Machine Prospector®, interrogates that data with a range of techniques —from computer vision to full-physics joint inversions to ensemble machine learning—to generate features that are tied to ore-forming processes or that tease out subtle signals in the data. We use those features to predict subsurface composition, permissive structural and stratigraphic settings, or other important controls on mineralization.

Our models are designed to rigorously quantify the uncertainty in our predictions and to estimate how different ways of collecting incremental data will decrease the uncertainty in our knowledge of the subsurface. These insights inform our decisions of where to acquire mineral properties, what data to collect in the field, and where to drill to discover new ore deposits. And our technology system enables us to use new information in the field to refine our models and adapt our field programs in real time.

Our team includes top mineral explorers who collectively have more than 300 years of exploration experience and have made nearly 20 discoveries. KoBold geoscientists work on exploration teams jointly with outstanding data scientists, who have Ph.D.’s in physics, math, materials science, and geophysics. And our technology backbone has been built from scratch by our team of software engineers who are alumni of top Silicon Valley tech companies.

KoBold Metals is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Equinor.

About the position

In this role, you will lead evaluations of potential properties for acquisition, generate targets, and design and oversee field programs from target definition through to resource expansion. You will be part of a multidisciplinary team and will work closely with data scientists, using KoBold’s technology to help guide our field programs and decision-making. You will also work directly with our senior technical advisors and with the executive team on making the investment case for acquisitions and field programs.

Ultimately, your role is to help KoBold make valuable discoveries by identifying opportunities with rigorous evaluation and by ensuring that we safely and effectively conduct our field programs.

Responsibilities

  • Demonstrate in all activities a commitment to the highest standards in health and safety, environment, and community relations
  • Rigorously analyze geoscientific datasets across a range of scales from provinces to prospects to determine exploration potential and to identify, rank, and prioritize exploration targets 
  • Design, budget, permit, and execute field programs ranging from geological mapping and sampling of grass roots prospects through to large drilling programs on advanced projects, with leading industry practice in data acquisition and validation
  • Provide technical guidance and support to local in-country project teams during the design and execution of exploration programs, including site visits and engagement with other project stakeholders (e.g., community representatives, regulatory authorities, and joint venture partners)
  • Work collaboratively with data scientist colleagues to conceive and implement insightful analytical methods

Qualifications

A great Senior Geologist candidate will have:

  • Strong technical knowledge of one or more ore deposit types. Experience working on sediment-hosted stratiform copper or magmatic sulfide deposits will be considered an advantage
  • Excellence in generative analysis ranging from new concepts to integration, interpretation, and modeling of large datasets
  • Good field skills and experience conducting field programs across a range of project stages from grassroots prospects through to advanced projects with significant drilling campaigns
  • Baseline level of proficiency in standard desktop software packages (e.g., ArcGIS or QGIS).
  • Strong leadership skills including the ability to motivate and inspire others, to share ownership and responsibility for project outcomes, and to work effectively in collaborative, interdisciplinary teams.
  • Previous experience in coaching and training geoscientists of varying experience, educational backgrounds, and cultures in leading-practice mineral exploration
  • Demonstrated commitment to high standards of health and safety in the workplace
  • A minimum of 10 years experience in the mineral exploration industry
  • B.Sc. degree in geology or related geoscience field

It is helpful but not required to have:

  • A Ph.D. or M.Sc. degree
  • Working knowledge of one programming or scripting language (e.g., Python, R, C/C++)
  • Knowledge of geostatistics and/or other statistical methods relevant for analysis of geoscientific data
  • International experience, particularly in the Central African Copperbelt

Note: Candidates who are specialists in geochemistry or geophysics but open to doing significant project work are encouraged to apply.

KoBold Metals is an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity for people of any race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, or veteran status.

This position is full-time, exempt.

Location: Open to remote, preferably in the US, Canada, or Zambia. KoBold Metals has offices in Vancouver, BC and Berkeley, CA.

Interested applicants should send a resume to jobs@koboldmetals.com. Candidates should state whether they currently have authorization to work in the US or Canada.

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