#Korite ammonite full#

Photo courtesy of geology student Yakov Aluph. The GEOL 4107 (Geological History of Western Canada) class on a recent field trip to Lake Louise.

Yakov Aluph worked in the People’s Jewellers labs cutting diamonds and using crystallographic spectroscopy to determine impurities, sometimes with other gems such as rubies, sapphires and emeralds.

Celina Darwent worked as a geo-interpreter at the Canadian Rockies Earth Science Resource Centre in Canmore, where she explained the local geology to visitors, went on numerous geo-hikes with the Centre’s staff and composed a geologic map.

and was a geotechnician with the company for a year.

Vanessa Benjafield conducted soil sampling for Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd.

Later in the summer, Barg and McNaught worked for Dias Geophysical Survey near Smithers, B.C. Jenni Scott, PhD on dinosaur-bearing strata at Whiterock Coulee in southern Alberta where they conducted geochemical analyses of sediments and even got involved in excavating an armoured dinosaur.

Charbel Aranha, Stuart Barg and Zane McNaught worked with MRU’s sedimentologist Dr.

Michelle DeWolfe, PhD, mapping two-billion-year-old rocks north of Yellowknife, commuting to work each day by float plane.

Shamus Harder and Stuart Barg spent the summer with MRU’s economic geologist Dr.Pawel Kuczaj was a geotechnician for NorZinc, which involved exploration for zinc, lead and silver in the Northwest Territories.by the historic gold rush-era Klondike Trail. for cement production as well as tin exploration near Atlin, B.C. Dayne Wingrove spent the summer conducting prospecting and geochemical analysis of limestones in Yukon and northern B.C.Lanto and Hutchison are grad students in Halifax supervised by Mount Royal’s Dr. with MRU geology alumni Orlando Lanto and Alex Hutchison.

Kosi Ule-Chimbo and Emma Burnett conducted gold exploration in northern B.C.

Johnston says third- and fourth-year students enjoyed a range of work experiences over the summer, across western and northern Canada. They also donated the large, colourful ammonite on display in the East Gate entrance.” “Korite Minerals has been a good friend of MRU, giving our fourth-year class a tour of their facility every fall. Paul Johnston, PhD, paleontologist and associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, says this kind of work experience is popular among students. The overall experience was “absolutely amazing,” she says.ĭr. Harris also got to see how a previously mined area is restored, or even enhanced, when the company is done at the site, such as one area being turned into a bird sanctuary. All of the pieces were so beautiful to look at.” She learned how each is graded and priced, some of which are sold and shipped worldwide. I got covered in dirt - it was so much fun. Working with the mined fossils, Harris would sort through the smaller pieces and look for ones that could be turned into jewelry.

Full-size fossils vary a lot in their dimensions but can be thick, heavy and about the width of the seat on a stool.įull-size fossils vary a lot in their dimensions but can be thick and heavy. “You have to move so slowly to spot the fossils but also not damage them,” she explains. Harris was able to observe the painstaking process of mining for the fossils by hand. The company’s mine is near Lethbridge and its processing facility is in Calgary. Involving everything from discovery to the finished product, Harris worked for Korite, an Alberta-based ammolite producer, and helped to mine for the 71-million-year-old fossils to see them turned into jewelry or large display pieces.Īmmolite, a vivid, multicoloured gemstone found only in marine rock strata in Alberta, originates from the shells of ammonites, extinct, red, squid-like creatures of the Mesozoic Era.

#Korite ammonite full#

The third-year geology student has made good on that promise, experiencing a full spectrum of what a geologist can do through a unique job opportunity this past summer. “People would say that’s not a real job, but I’d tell them, ‘Yes it is, and I’m going to do it.’ ”

Third-year geology student Michelle Harris at an ammonite mine near Lethbridge, Alberta.Īs a child who loved rocks, Michelle Harris knew she wanted to be a geologist before she knew what geology was.

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