Senior geologist

Pay in the destination countries

Monthly, in US dollars. Each country is an Imora admission package — open one for that route's fees, language requirement and deadline.

What does the day look like?

You search for new deposits. You pick targets from maps and geochemistry, plan drill holes, supervise diamond and reverse-circulation contractors, log core and take samples, check assay quality with blanks, standards and duplicates, build 3D geological models, track the drill budget, manage contractor safety, handle land access and environmental permits, and write technical reports to JORC Code 2012 or NI 43-101 standard.

Your systems are Leapfrog Geo, Micromine, Surpac, Datamine, ArcGIS and QGIS, acQuire or MX Deposit, and ioGAS. Your field tools are a hand lens, compass-clinometer, portable XRF analyser, magnetic susceptibility meter and downhole survey tools. Only 20% to 30% of a senior year is discovery mapping; the rest is log review, assay validation, modelling, cost control, contractor management and report writing. On an active programme you work 12-hour days on a fly-in fly-out roster, commonly 2 weeks on and 1 week off, with nights on call while a rig is turning. Between programmes you work office hours at about 40 hours per week.

Where does this lead?