Graham Banks
Associate - Principal Geologist - Americas
Director and founder of the Route to Reservces. Senior geoscientist.
Graham has 14 years industry experience in petroleum and minerals exploration. He has a broad and diverse experience from integrating a range of rock, fluid and deformation systems in numerous geographies. He has been responsible for a broad range of projects: characterising fault-fracture systems, leading fieldwork programmes, mineral system design, petroleum play analysis, basin economic screening, Joint Venture assessments, prospect generation, core logging, etc.
His structural, stratigraphic, play analysis and prospect mapping integration were valuable to the delineation of Sarqala and Kurdamir oil fields (Iraqi Kurdistan).
His predictive, system-scale approach to tech metals targeting in Germany and Greenland has led to industry spin-offs and publications.
His current drive is to enhance regional-scale to prospect-scale predictive targeting techniques and decision quality, by quantifying and mapping geological uncertainties and confidence in data-models. This ambition came from recognising the need for a different approach in critical minerals exploration, and a vision of how it can happen: by adapting, then adopting, the petroleum industry’s quantitative and probability-based targeting techniques (basin screening, petroleum system evaluation, play analysis). He has implemented these exploration targeting processes for years in metals and petroleum screening assessments in Greenland, Germany, Iraq, Libya, Oman and Algeria. It’s starting here for minerals exploration. Follow the progress.
When working in the Middle East and East Africa I unfortunately saw work practises and conditions that wouldn’t be acceptable in the Western World. Poor working conditions are the reality in some resource-rich countries, and generate employment and standard of living increases. Even so, there was a nagging in my head that there must be a better way for workers to discover and extract critical resources. Route To Reserves will focus on sustainable and ethical exploration provinces and materials, with an aim to spread some good methods to other resource-rich regions.
Graham brings expertise in:
- The mindset required for junior company exploration success.
- Regional screening, targeting, chance of success assessments.
- Acreage and prospect evaluations: geological and business.
- Integrating disparate data, particularly sparse\poor quality data.
- Bridging the gap between research and industry’s needs.
- Igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary and systems.
- Structural geology, particularly fault-fracture networks.