The Research Team

The Potential Fields Team based at Lindfield on the North Shore of Sydney, NSW is part of CSIRO Mineral Resources’ Discovery Program.

Dr Jim Austin

Team Leader and Principal Research Scientist, Potential Fields Geophysics

  • Jim enjoys getting out bush, getting his hand dirty on field trips to some of the hottest, remotest and most geologically complicated regions of outback Australia. He leads the Potential Fields Geophysics team, part of the Ore Body Knowledge Group, within CSIRO Mineral Resources at Lindfield. His science focus is on integrating insights from geophysics, petrophysics, structural geology and geochemistry in 3-D to better understand mineral systems, and furthermore how best to explore for economic minerals. He has  expertise in a range of mineral deposit styles, including Iron Oxide Copper-Gold (IOCG), Broken Hill Type (BHT), Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS), Banded Iron Formations (BIF), Cobar type polymetallic deposits and Magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE systems. Current research programs are focussed on generating methodologies for scale-consistent, quantitative integration of geoscientific data, better understanding structural controls, radiometric properties and remanent magnetisation in mineral systems, and development of environmentally conscious applications for geophysics. He is one of the main drivers for the use of petrophysics and integrated characterisation in the mineral exploration industry, and is currently working with the MinEx collaborative research centre and with several ASX listed explorers across Australia. Prior to joining CSIRO Jim worked as a Geophysicist in the Oil and Gas sector, a Geoscience Consultant with Encom Technologies, as an Exploration Geologist in Broken Hill and Mount Isa, and as a Cartographer / Illustrator for Australian Geographic Magazine.
Dr Clive Foss

Dr Clive Foss

Senior Principal Research Scientist

  • Clive grew up in Cornwall and Devon, once the tin and copper mining capital of the newly industrialising world. He spent weekends searching for minerals on abandoned mines and decided to become a geophysicist following a museum exhibition on mineral and oil exploration at the age of 11. Following school Clive studied Geophysics at Reading University which at that time had the only degree course in geophysics, and became interested paleomagnetics. Clive subsequently went to Leeds University to do a PhD on the paleomagnetism of Archean and Proterozoic rocks in Southern Africa and then became a Lecturer in applied geophysics at the University of Malaya. He worked on the Indonesian-Australian Geological Mapping Program in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) and as a potential field geophysics consultant throughout Southeast Asia. In 1995 Clive relocated to Sydney to work with Encom Technology running consultancy services primarily to coal mining and petroleum companies, assisting in software development of ModelVision primarily for mineral exploration companies and geological surveys, and conducting world-wide training in the software and potential field methods. Clive joined CSIRO in 2009 working with Phil Schmidt, Dave Clark and later Jim Austin in the paleomagnetic and rock magnetics team. At CSIRO Clive has continued the main theme of his career of research into remanent magnetization of rocks and its expression in the magnetic field. This is a theme to which our group has made world-leading contributions over more than half a century. Clive has a continuing association with my previous colleagues in Encom Technology, now Tensor Research, and is a mentor to numerous CSIRO and Geological Survey staff in Potential Field Modelling.
Dr Giovanni Spampinato

Dr Giovanni Spampinato

Senior Research Scientist

  • Giovanni is an experienced geophysicist with expertise in processing and interpretation of geological and geophysical data, 3D modelling and inversion and large data management for mineral exploration, resource evaluation and targeting. Giovanni completed his PhD at Monash University in Structural Geophysics, worked as a senior geoscientist and 3D modeler at the Geological Survey of NSW, and worked for MIRA geoscience in Brisbane. Giovanni’s focus is in integration of geophysics with other geospatial datasets to integrate mineral system knowledge and develop cost effective undercover exploration strategies. His  role at CSIRO is to create new methodologies for integrated 3-D geological modelling and mitigate geological risk in resources management. Giovanni is working toward CSIRO’s discovery programs research priority areas of Exploration Through Cover and Orebody Knowledge.

Dr Sarath Patabendi

Research Technician

  • Sarath is a passionate geoscientist with ten years of academic and professional experience in the fields of geology and geophysics. As our petrophysics lab manager Sarath collaborates across a range of scientific and technological activities, planning and executing sampling and experimental work in petrophysics as part of our integrated regional-deposit scale geochemical, mineralogical, and geophysical projects. He is responsible for the management of our laboratory, maintenance of field and lab equipment and driving digitalisation across our data acquisition worfklows. Sarath completed his PhD in Geophysics at Macquarie University in 2020 and worked for Fender Geophysics prior to joining CSIRO.

Andreas Bjork

  • Andreas Bjork is a PhD Student supervised by David Giles (UniSA) and Jim Austin (CSIRO). His MinEx CRC sponsored project is focussed on methodologies to integrate petrophysical parameters of complex mineral deposits across the sample to drill hole to deposit scale. He is currently working on understanding remanent magnetisation in Cobar type deposits, will also focus on using new petrophysical logging technologies and ultimately his work will develop methodologies for targeting complex geophysical anomalism through cover. Prior to joining CSIRO Andreas worked at the Kiruna mine in Sweden and as a Research Technician at CSIRO Lindfield.