Lance Martin, founding Deputy Chair of GEMSA NT, trained as a boilermaker in the early 1970’s and entered the mining industry as a drillers offsider at the Beverly Uranium Project (SA) in 1976. Lance was fascinated by the complexity of mineral drilling and progressed up the ranks of his craft in the many facets of the industry. He developed skills in mud, rotary air, diamond, and reverse circulation drilling, completing works such as artesian bores, mine dewatering and monitoring, 1.2 metre diameter bulk core sampling and installing deep extensometer piezometers.

Lance arrived in the NT in 1990 as Manager of Thompson Drilling’s Pine Creek blast hole operations in 1990, and concurrently ran a successful mineral exploration company as well as serving on the Pine Creek Community Government Council through to 1994. With the cessation of operations in Pine Creek Lance took a different path taking on the role of Sales Manager at Geminex (a successful safety, geological and drilling supply company in Darwin) and eventually purchased the company in 1998.During his time at Geminex, Lance was a board member of the Totally Workwear Group, trained as a Quality Assurance Auditor and assisted drilling and exploration companies with the supply of consumables and drilling methodology when needed. Following the sale of Geminex to Wesfarmers in 2009, Lance spent time doing QA Audits, assisting local businesses with submitting tenders, and writing company policy documents in the areas of safety and management.

Lance founded Practical Safety Australia in 2014 out of an emerging need for a local supply base for drilling and exploration consumables. This business has been growing steadily for the past few years through companies happy to support local suppliers, and Lance is always keen to assist wherever he can.

Lance has served as President of Pine Creek Pistol Club, Vice President of Darwin RSL Social Club and Chair of the Drillers Qualification Advisory Committee, of which he remains a Committee member. Lance is a Life member Minerals Council of Australia, a Class 3 licenced Water Well Driller, a Certified Quality Assurance Auditor, a recipient of Australia Day Honours and a proud NT Resident.

Tanya Cole, Treasurer of GEMSA NT, is a long term resident of Darwin, operating her consultancy business, All Aspects Mining Tenement Management from Darwin. Tanya has 20 years’ experience in tenement management, managing tenure across Australia, and since 2020, has been increasingly focused on assisting explorers in the NT. Tanya has a particular interest in all matters relating to land access for mineral exploration.

Ray Wooldridge, also a founding Committee Member of GEMSA NT, holds a diploma in Applied Chemistry and a Diploma in Assaying. Ray is a Chartered Chemist, a Member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Of note, Ray is also the last formally qualified Precious Metal Assayer still practicing in Australia. Ray has some 55 years extensive experience in mineral chemistry, both in Australia and overseas and has 37 years in the NT Mining industry, particularly with the Tennant Creek 1OCG type mineralisation and the arsenopyrite of the Pine Creek Geosyncline. Ray developed the multiple pouring system used in most Fire Assay laboratories in Australia and internationally and formulated the 104 flux [or derivative of] which is the mainstay flux of the international gold mining industry. Ray has particular expertise in sample preparation of coarse gold ores and fire assay for gold, particularly in difficult ores. Ray’s experience also includes the analysis of iron, manganese, base metal, uranium, rare earths and lithium ores and multi element assay services for Mineral Exploration.

In 1985 Ray established a sophisticated laboratory equipped with state-of-the-art AAS, ICP-OES and ICP-MS analytical instrumentation in Pine Creek and has continued to service the mining and mineral exploration industry in the Northern Australia ever since.

Jerry entered the Resources Industry in the mid 90’s based in Pinjarra Hills’s securing a position with CSIRO Exploration and Mining. His roles progressed from Contracts and Procurement to finally Site Manager by the early 2000’s. Seeing the emerging Coal Seam Gas industry Jerry became involved in Directional Drilling – Operations, based in Moura.

By the late 2000’s he was working for Queensland Gas Company based in the Surat Basin as a Land Access Consultant whilst also acting as Liaison for Drilling Operations to the Land Access Team. Further opportunities became available in Origin Energy as the Natural Resources Manager and Contracts Coordinator for CS Energy based at Kogan Creek power station.

He relocated to the NT in 2016 to be part of the growing shale gas industry and has worked in Aboriginal Business Development, Project Management and Contracts and Procurement for various clients.