John Carranza

John's research mission at JCU is: "To develop and disseminate expertise/knowledge in predicting mineral prospectivity and estimating undiscovered mineral endowment through understanding of relevant mineral systems and application of geographic information system and remote sensing technology."

John is inspired with mineral deposit discovery, which is not easy to achieve because it's like "finding a needle in haystack". John believes that, although mineral deposit discovery requires sound knowledge of mineral systems and ore deposit geology and it can only be done on the ground, research and development of methods for proper analysis and integration of various exploration datasets are essential in facilitating mineral deposit discovery. For this, John uses remote sensing and GIS as important tools.

John started his professional career in 1983 as a geologist in the Bureau of Mines and Geosciences (MGB) of the Philippines where he was involved with geological mapping, stratigraphic studies, geological hazard mapping, evaluation of industrial rocks/minerals and geochemical exploration for gold. His work on exploration geochemistry led to recognition of a previously unknown mineralized area in a Quaternary volcanic terrane in Bicol Region of the Philippines. Whilst working for MGB, John studied intermittently for higher degrees in the Netherlands

In 2001, just before obtaining his PhD, and until 2003, he was a Researcher in the Earth Systems Analysis (ESA) department of ITC where he is involved with (a) research in developing geospatial data infrastructure for mineral resource management, (b) teaching at post-graduate level and (c) supervision of MSc and PhD students. From 2003 to 2012, he was Assistant Professor in the ESA department of ITC with more-or-less similar teaching and research tasks as his Researcher appointment. From January 2013 to January 2016, John was Associate Professor in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences of James Cook University. He is currently Adjunct Associate Professor in JCU.

Currently, since August 2015, John is Visiting Professor in the Institute of Geosciences of State University of Campinas, Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil. In this position, John Carranza has a project "Minute Mineral Maps: Ciphers to Hidden Prospects in Frontier Regions" to investigate the link between micro-scale patterns of ore minerals and local- to regional-scale structural controls on mineralization, and test the idea that this relationship allows better prediction of mineral prospectivity.

The highlights of John's academic career, since 2001, are:

• Has worked and is working at forefront of research in predictive modeling of mineral prospectivity
• Has written a book on “Geochemical Anomaly and Mineral Prospectivity Mapping in GIS”
• Has edited 7 geoscience journal special/thematic issues
• Has at least 25 journal papers ranked among ScienceDirect’s Top 25 Hottest Articles
• Has at least 135 publications in international peer-reviewed scientific journals
• Has at least 70 publications in international geoscience conference proceedings