John Sumpton

GeoIntrepid General Manager

John Sumpton has worked in exploration for over 30 years. The majority of that time he has been with De Beers, the preeminent diamond mining and marketing company. John is a geophysicist who has worked as both a specialist and a technical manager in Australia, India and Africa. John’s role at GeoIntrepid is to manage the relationship with our clients and ensure access to all the resources of the Intrepid Group to deliver successful project outcomes.

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Des Fitzgerald

GeoIntrepid Associate

Des Fitzgerald is the Managing Director and principal owner of Intrepid Geophysics (IG) (formerly Desmond Fitzgerald & Associates Pty Ltd (DFA)). Des founded the company in 1978 as an independent consultancy specializing in the use of computer methods for mining and geophysics. He also co-founded MINDATA, (specialized Mining Research & Development Company) and was Chairman of that company for 14 years.

Des has over 25 years experience with Intrepid Geophysics. His major projects have included: the development of the INTREPID geological processing system (software) with Geoscience Australia (GA); a complete compilation of Australian regional geophysical maps (both on shore and offshore) for magnetics, gravity, and bathymetry in partnership with Geoscience Australia (GA); and liaising with the French Geological Survey to further develop and promote new technology for 3D Geological mapping (3D GEOMODELLER) software integrated with potential field geophysics.

Des holds a PhD in Mining Engineering from the University of Melbourne (Australia). He is a Director for Spatial Vision, a Director for RMIT Innovations Ltd, and the Chairman of GeoJAG. He is also a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AIMM), Australian Industry of Petroleum (AIP), Mineral Industry Consultants Association (MICA), Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), and the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists(ASEG). Des is based in Melbourne, Australia.

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Helen Gibson

GeoIntrepid Associate

Helen Gibson began relations with Intrepid Geophysics in 2004, becoming involved with the application of 3D GeoModeller to geological problem solving. Using her commercial background in geology, she has prepared prospectus documents, conference handouts and marketing material for Intrepid Geophysics, aiming to promote the use of 3D GeoModeller in the oil and gas exploration industry.

Helen has been a consultant and service provider to the oil and gas exploration industry for some 13 years, principally as a Senior Geologist with Geotrack International. In this role she specialises in thermal history reconstructions (and basin modelling to a lesser extent), based on interpreted apatite fission track analysis (AFTA®) and geochemical data. Since 1993 she has carried out more than 30 thermal history studies for domestic and international oil and gas explorers, government groups, and universities. She has also written three regional studies for non-exclusive use in industry, and published thermal history studies in the Murchison Basin (New Zealand), and Adelaide Fold Belt (South Australia).

Helen has a BSc (Hons) Geology (1987) and an MSc Geology (1993) both from the University of Melbourne. She is based in Sandringham, Melbourne, from where she operates her own business "The Loop Geologic", providing a range of services to earth science organisations. She was an author/presenter at the 2004 APPEA conference (Canberra), and the 2005 Central Australian Basins Symposium (Alice Springs). She is a member of PESA.

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Peter Gunn

GeoIntrepid Associate

Peter Gunn is a Senior Associate of GeoIntrepid. His services include planning, supervision and direct involvement with the acquisition, processing, enhancement and interpretation of airborne magnetic and gravity surveys. Peter is also an experienced seismic interpreter, having worked with French petroleum interests for 17 years.

Peter has over 30 years experience as an independent consultant, as Head of Geophysical Mapping Group/ Airborne Survey Program for Australian Geological Survey Organisation (AGSO), and as Chief Geophysicist for subsidiaries of the Elf Aquitaine Group (now known as Total Fina Elf). Peter's petroleum exploration experience includes studies in virtually all significant onshore and offshore Australian sedimentary basins, the North Sea, the Irish Sea, the UK, African, Atlantic and Mediterranean margins. Peter is noted for his extensive background knowledge of sedimentary basin formation, structuring processes, depositional systems, hydrocarbon play concepts and applications of potential fields in basin studies. He has over 40 publications on magnetic and gravity interpretation, some referenced in textbooks and manuals. Peter has a long history of proven leadership skills within the industry, giving regular training courses, workshops and keynote addresses.

Peter holds a PhD in Geophysics with full majors in geology, physics and mathematics from the University of Durham (UK), BSc - University of Melbourne (Australia), MSc - University of Manitoba (Canada). He has worked in 23 countries and interpreted data from 11 additional countries. He is fluent in English and French, plus basic Spanish. He is currently based in Sydney, Australia.

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Alan Reid

Co-Owner + Co-director of GeoIntrepid UK

Alan Reid runs Reid Geophysics Ltd, based in Leeds, UK, and is co-director and co-owner of GeoIntrepid UK. He offers consulting services in potential field geophysics to both the petroleum and mineral exploration industries. His services include survey design, commissioning and QC, as well as data processing, interpretation and training. His clients include government departments and parastatals (Mali, Libya, UK), oil companies (BG, Chevron-Texaco, Shell, Repsol, CEPSA, Conoco-Phillips) and mineral exploration companies prospecting for diamonds and precious and base metals.

Alan has over 24 years experience as an exploration geophysicist, as an independent consultant, on the staff of GETECH and Robertson Research International, and as Chief Geophysicist of Tsumeb Corporation (part of the Newmont Group) in Namibia. Prior to that he taught in the Physics Department of the University of Zimbabwe. He founded and ran their M.Sc. course in Exploration Geophysics. He is noted for his contribution to magnetic survey design and for his ongoing role in the development of grid Euler deconvolution.

Alan holds a PhD in Geophysics from the University of Alberta (Canada). He is a Deputy Editor of Exploration Geophysics and a member of the Awards Committee of the EAGE and the Technical Standards and Gravity/Magnetic Committees of the SEG. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds.

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Rainer Wackerle

Manager, GeoIntrepid Namibia

Rainer holds a Diploma (MSc. Equivalent) in Applied Geophysics from the Technical University of Berlin. He started his career at the "Büro für Geophysik” in 1990 performing environmental and engineering geophysical consulting in the area of Berlin and the former German Democratic Republic. This included waste disposal investigation, detection of hazardous waste, detection of UXOs and ground water investigation.

From 1993 to 1996 he worked as an exploration geophysicist with the ‘Mineral Prospecting Promotion Project’ of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) seconded to the Geological Survey of Namibia. In this role he participated in the compilation of the Namibian regional airborne magnetic survey data.

In 1997 Rainer joined the Geological Survey of Namibia where he held the position of Senior, later Chief geophysicist. During this time he was responsible for the geophysical activities of the Survey, including quality control of more than 4.5 million line-km of airborne geophysical surveys and supervision of the seismological and magnetic observatories operated by the Survey in co-operation with other institutions.

In 2009 he established GeoIntrepid Namibia where he is currently the Manager. GeoIntrepid Namibia provides a range of services including gravity, magnetic and radiometric data processing, data compilations, quality control (QC), image processing and interpretation of ground, marine and airborne geophysical data, satellite imagery and hyperspectral data.

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Matthew (Matt) Zengerer

Matthew graduated from Flinders University in 1998 with majors in Geology and Geophysics and completed his Honours in Geophysics from the University of Tasmania in 1999. After a few years processing ground and airborne geophysical data for Australian gravity, magnetic and electromagnetic survey companies, he joined CGG (later CGGVeritas) in 2002 as a marine seismic data processor in Perth. A desire to move into integrated geophysics and geology projects saw him take a contract position with the Geological Survey of Western Australia in 2004, where he was first introduced to Intrepid Geophysics and GeoModeller.

In 2006 Matt joined ARK Geophysics (later ARKeX) as a geophysicist performing basin modelling and potential field inversion, integrating seismic, GIS and geology data. Shifting currents saw him return to Adelaide at the end of 2007, where he was employed as a uranium and base metals exploration geophysicist with UXA before striking solo as a consultant.

Since 2009 he has focussed on integrated geophysics and geology basin studies for geothermal and hydrocarbon exploration, as well as traditional gold and base metals exploration. An Associate of GeoIntrepid since 2008, Matthew is currently playing a significant role in Torrens Energy's geothermal exploration efforts as well as working with tensor potential field inversion studies using GeoModeller. He is also currently active in the South Australian ASEG chapter as a committee member. His interests include tectonics and basin analysis, planetary science, base metals exploration, geophysical inversion, geological modelling and integration of different geological and geophysical datasets for modelling and interpretation.

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