Bob Felder

Member Biography I consider myself quite fortunate for the opportunities, successes and people that have come into my life since I entered the world of geology over 35 years ago. I had no idea of the adventure that this career choice would pro-vide for me - it has been quite an exciting ride thus far. I have seen geology and mineral deposits in far reaching places like Antarctica, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and I have had the very good fortune to have been around a few discoveries, which provided me with a great deal of “career building” experience and has left me with a solid background and unique perspective which I utilize every day. I have been in Nevada for the past 25 years, and have enjoyed my involvement in GSN, which has included being Membership Chair, technical reviewer, session chair and committee chair for the Symposia, attendee of many GSN field trips and a regular at the Reno Friday night meetings. The GSN is truly a unique organization that I am proud to be a part of.

I arrived upon this planet on the shores of Lake Erie near Cleveland, Ohio. Growing up in the rust belt didn’t do much to steer me towards geology; however as I grew up and had occasion to travel to the western US, I developed a love for the outdoors, and my interest in science and geology followed. I attended Ohio State University and during my freshman year, took my first geology class and was immediately hooked. After a summer of backpacking in Alaska, I declared my major during sophomore year and never looked back. I completed Bachelors and Masters degrees at OSU and received a very good education; however my interest in mineral deposits developed relatively late in my education and the connections to the mining industry from Columbus, Ohio were basically non-existent. I resisted the career path to the oil patch, and in 1980, headed west to find work in mineral exploration. My first job as a geologist was in Denver with Anaconda Copper Co., who, after being acquired by Atlantic Richfield (Arco) were diversifying their business and branching out into other commodities. I worked in the Industrial Minerals Group on a diamond exploration program in North America, and although this was great experience, I was eager to get involved in gold exploration. This desire led me from Denver to Reno, where I went to work for Duval Corporation in the Summer of 1983. This was my first exposure to Nevada geology and gold exploration and other than a small detour back east in 1984-1986, I have been here ever since. After a short time working in Nevada for Pegasus, I joined Santa Fe Pacific Gold in 1987. This was during a very exciting chapter at Santa Fe that included much exploration success and substantial opportunity. I began working on the Rabbit Creek (now Twin Creeks) development drilling program, and I remember arriving as the newest member of the growing geologic team to three core rigs and a mountain of core. I learned a great deal from the team at Rabbit Creek, and it was very exciting to see this world class gold deposit unfold in front of our eyes. Following Rabbit Creek, I took on the company’s exploration projects in the Battle Mountain district. For seven years, I was entrenched in Battle Mountain geology (and culture) and this effort resulted in the discovery of two oxide gold deposits at Valmy and Trenton Canyon, which were put into production by Newmont following their acquisition of Santa Fe in 1997. After Santa Fe, I joined a small private company named Pittston Nevada Gold Co., who came to Nevada in 1993 with a philosophy of exploration that involved selecting target areas off the trends and using BLEG sampling as a primary prospecting tool. This resulted in the early identification of the now well known “Pequop Gold District” with the discovery of the Acrobat deposit in 1995, Section 34 and Mountaintop in 1999, and Long Canyon in 2000. Despite their success in the Pequops, Pittston shut down in June, 2001 and, with low gold prices the prospects for work in exploration were pretty grim. After a lot of soul searching I decided to get my securities license and became a financial advisor. This kept me busy for a few years, but it was with little hesitation that I returned to the industry when things began picking up again. I consulted for Placer Dome in 2004 in the southern Cortez Trend and in 2005 joined NewWest Gold Corp. as their Vice President, Exploration. NewWest was acquired by Fronteer in 2007, and I became the U.S. Exploration Manager, a position I held until 2009. During my time with NewWest and Fronteer, I enjoyed a firsthand view of the advancement of Long Canyon from being an interesting prospect with a handful of good gold intercepts to a significant gold resource. After Fronteer, I continued working in the junior sector as a consultant to multiple clients and in 2011 founded a new junior exploration company, Kinetic Gold Corp., with partner and fellow GSN member Greg Hill.

So after 35 years, there are still new adventures and opportunities to be had and its still as exciting as the first gold intercept! I look forward to many more years exploring in Nevada and enjoying the many benefits of GSN.

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