Cliff Stanley Biography

After acquiring a Geology BA (‘80) from Dartmouth College, and MSc (‘84) and PhD (’88) from the University of British Columbia, Cliff Stanley served in several post-graduate research posts, at the University of Calgary studying numerical metamorphic petrology, at Queen’s University studying applied geochemistry, and as Adjunct Professor in economic geology at the Mineral Deposit Research Unit at UBC. In 1998, Cliff moved to the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at Acadia University in Nova Scotia as a professor of applied geochemistry. He has research interests involving numerical applications in geochemistry and petrology applied to exploration geochemistry and mineral exploration, amongst other topics. He is best known as the author of numerous publications illustrating the application of molar element ratio analysis to lithogeochemical data, and received the Chayes Prize from the Association of Mathematical Geoscientists in recognition of those contributions. Cliff also commonly presents professional development short courses to mineral exploration geologists and geoscientists involving QAQC, and has served as distinguished lecturer in this discipline for both the CIM and AUSIMM.

His presentation will highlight how outlier treatment in reference material round-robin data — from single-laboratory random errors to systematic inter-laboratory differences — exposes the unjustified nature of data omission in current certified reference material (CRM) certification processes, and provides a much-needed scientific reflection on quality assurance/quality control (QAQC) practices in mineral exploration and resource estimation.