Nick LeBoutillier (left) and Alex Kravtsov; Tarasov Section, Schevchenko Nickel Laterite Deposit, Zhitikara, Kostonai Oblast, Kazakhstan, June 2004.
The nickel ore is literally beneath our feet under a metre or two of soil and forms part of Oriel Resources' Schevchenko Deposit, which is due to go into production in 2007/8. My friend Alex is one of the drilling contractors on the project, heading the Zhitikara Expedition, - as you can see, he's showing me how to look cool in my stetson!
Nick LeBoutillier; Stepnogorsk Woods, Stepnogorsk, Akmola Oblast, Kazakhstan, February 2008.
Currently (as of May 2006) working for the Canadian company Alhambra Resources as a consultant on the Uzboy Gold Project in NE Kazakhstan. I am involved in overseeing part of the continuing exploration of the deposit, along with undertaking a structural, petrological, mineralogical and geochemical study of the deposit. I am based primarily in the city of Stepnogorsk, north of the capital, Astana, and the mine camp at Uzboy, which is around 200 km NNW, out on the steppe. Uzboy is a vein/disseminated pyritic gold deposit, associated with intermediate to acid volcanic rocks and sits within the Charsk Belt that crosses NE Kazakhstan and is host to a number of major gold deposits. For more information about Uzboy and Alhambra, click on the link below:-
During 2005 I worked as a consultant on the Bayankol Placer Gold Deposit in the Tien Shan Mountains, adjacent to the Chinese border, in SE Kazakhstan, for Bateman PLC. Prior to this, in 2004 I worked in NW Kazakhstan on Oriel Resources' Schevchenko nickel-laterite deposit, SSW of Zhitikara.
Previously I was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Camborne School of Mines in Cornwall (working on baseline lithogeochemistry of Cornwall), after completing a PhD (2002) at CSM on 'The tectonics of Permian magmatism and mineralisation in SW England'. Prior to that I worked for five years, between 1993 and 1998, as a mine geologist (eventually becoming Senior Mine Geologist; responsible for all operating levels between surface and the 400 Fathom Level and its sublevels) at South Crofty Tin Mine in Cornwall, U.K. Other work undertaken includes resource evaluation on a tin/zinc/silver mine in Bolivia, mineralogical/metallurgical logging of Cu/Au porphyry copper boreholes (Kyrgyzstan), mudlogging in Algeria and aggregate reserve estimation in Somerset.
This page last updated 14/03/2008
