Double Take -- by Mark Sproxton

Moving between the high-powered microscope and a pad of paper, the mineral petrographer pauses only briefly to put on his glasses. The rock sample he's examining contains many unique characteristics and holds some interesting stories. The exploration company he's working for will be pleased with his findings which he's recording on the paper. The rock sample holds many flecks of gold.

A microscope is one of Andrzej Skupinski's most important tools.

"Petrology is analytical work describing rocks and minerals," explains Andrzej (Andrew) Skupinski in his basement, which serves as his laboratory and workshop. "The role of the petrologist is to squeeze from the rocks as (much) useful information as possible. The story the rock tells depends on the rock and the interpreter." Examining rock samples approximately 25 microns (0.0025 cm) thick, the petrographer must be skilled at identifying minerals. This microscopic detail helps a company determine two main things: if they have a mineral on their property they can mine easily and sell at a profit; and what method they will have to use to separate the valuable mineral from the host rock.

While petrographic services are used in mineral and oil and gas exploration, Skupinski said it is not as common in Alberta as it in his home country Poland. "Here, people and companies are not accustomed to use such services," he said. "Petrology is a very useful tool in mineral exploration but not many businessmen doing exploration fully understand this. This is the most frequent difficulty." Skupinski started his own business after moving to Canada with his family and learning about the differences in geological exploration between the two countries.

Skupinski with some of his work.

"I couldn't find any jobs so I decided just to employ myself. I'm doing what I like. Usually people having professions coming to a new country just change professions, adjusting to local conditions." He has successfully run his own petrographic and mineralogical services company, Tatra Mineralogical Ltd. since 1987. Armed with a PhD from the Polish academy of science, Skupinski has many years of petrographic experience. He is also a member of APEGGA, the provincial professional engineering and geological scientist association.

When working in Poland in the 1960s he would perform geological mapping work in the summer and then retreat to the lab for petrographic work in the winter. (One summer project took him to Mongolia where he and four others became the first people to climb 10 mountains, including the 4,100m Mt. Snow Church.) Skupinski now works whenever he has a contract with the provincial government or a mining company. This usually means when there's lots of drilling and exploration, he's working lots, otherwise he's finding other things to do with his time, such as skiing.

A gold sample from a Skupinski slide.

When things are busy, a day could include receiving rock samples to be tested, then preparing the rocks on thin slides. Each slide can take two to two-and-a-half hours to prepare as it requires much care to cut and grind and polish a rock so it is only 25 microns thick. Once this step is complete, Skupinski will analyze the samples under a high powered microscope and write a description of the rock. He will take photomicrographs (pictures through the microscope) and, once he has analyzed all the samples, include his descriptions and pictures in a report that gets sent to whoever he's working for at the time. Needless to say, the work requires knowledge, patience and steady hands.

His advice to anyone considering this career is to make sure you enjoy everything about it as it's not a way to make lots of money. Numerous labs in the province also make thin slides for examination, but Skupinski prefers making them manually himself, especially when rock samples contain hard and soft rock packed closely together. "Everything I'm doing I like. It's hard to say which is the best part of the job. For some, it's just when they're getting the cheque. For me, the most important and most interesting part is to have interesting projects. The money is also important but is a secondary satisfaction."