Geoimage appoints new Senior Spectral Geologist & Remote Sensing Specialist

Pizza or pasta, and what is your favourite cake flavour?

“Pasta and chocolate cake” Rocío replied, with a qualification that for dessert, fruit tarts are preferred. This question is important for any newcomer at Geoimage as it informs our staff birthday celebrations. So with this vital information, we are very happy to announce that Rocío Vargas Soto is now working with Geoimage as our Senior Spectral Geologist and Remote Sensing Specialist, a long title to squeeze onto a business card but very aptly describes Rocío’s strengths.

Jaiden, our Marketing Coordinator sat down with Rocío and asked some insightful questions:

Tell me about yourself, what’s your background story. What led you to Australia?

I am a Geologist, born and raised in Santiago, Chile. I studied Geology and did my MSc at the University of Chile.  After finishing my studies, I worked there in different roles as a geochemist and project geologist in metallic exploration projects and in a mining tech company. I ended up in Australia at the end of 2018 to pursue my PhD at the University of Queensland (UQ). After that, I was working with Teck Resources Ltd, a large Canadian based mining and exploration company that has interests in many natural resources including, copper, zinc and nickel. I worked on different projects in Australia and worldwide using my skills in spectral analysis and geochemistry. 

What is your passion within your field of work?

I enjoy the scientific aspect of it, the advancement of technology and the great tools that we can access at the moment. It is a very diverse field where you are able to work in different places of the world, meet people and get to share so many experiences, that maybe I would have not been able to do if I had decided to pursue another career. 

Have you had a favourite project?

Every project I've done is very different, from all stages of the mining cycle (greenfields exploration to brownfield and operating mines) and the location in the world. I think the common aspect that has been present on those and my greatest interest, is the relevance of the mineralogy, which helps us find and define orebodies, and then is so relevant to the process of extracting and processing that ore into a final product.

What will your role at Geoimage entail?

I'm joining Geoimage and supporting the team with my knowledge of Spectral Mineralogy for our remote sensing applications. We do spectral mineralogy interpretation with the satellite images and combine this with geological knowledge of the area to delineate prospective areas or assist studies for remediation on mine sites. 

What are you looking forward to?

I look forward to exploring the capabilities of the latest hyperspectral satellites and I feel very fortunate to be part of one of the first teams globally, working with these advanced datasets and exploring their applications, for example, using machine and deep learning algorithms.

What have you enjoyed most about your time at Geoimage so far?

I am glad to be part of a team with the capabilities for each part of the process, from image acquisition to pre and post processing. I think that with all the new technology coming in, it is essential to have a multidisciplinary team that can support a rigorous assessment and develop practical solutions fit for the challenges we are facing at the moment.

A final word from our CEO, Mark Covington:

The field of spectral analysis holds great potential and with satellites from Pixxel, Esper, Wyvern and Planet now capturing data, the real work of analysing and applying that data to the real world is only just beginning. Which is why I am really excited that Rocío has decided to join us. Rocío brings a wealth of expertise and her personal values are strongly aligned with our team values. This is really important for us, and I am looking forward to working closely with Rocío on bringing the value of spectral analysis to our client-base. And while her birthday is not until next year, I am sure we’ll find a reason to sneak in a couple of fruit tarts very soon.