Jim Leavitt (Published in September 2012 GSN Newsletter)

I was born on the craton in Illinois, raised on the leading edge in California, schooled and worked in Oregon, Alaska, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Mexico, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Peru, Canada, China, and back to Nevada. Of all the places I have lived and worked, Nevada is arguably the best.

I received my BS from the University of California at Santa Barbara (Go Gouchos) and MS from the University of Oregon (Go Ducks). It was at Oregon that I met the amazing Ellie Davie, soon to be Ellie Leavitt. After finishing our masters work in volcanology we adventured and worked in the various places listed above, sometimes together, sometimes apart. We became fully invested in minerals exploration as our careers and as our way of life. Along the way we raised three awesome kids and managed to get them though college (hallelujah or transliterated from Arabic, alhumdalullah, or plain English, God be praised).

I am very proud of my children. I am especially proud of Ellie for putting up with me for the past 34 years and raising the kids with a little help from me. Time flies by when you are having fun.

Workwise I had long stints with Noranda, and Homestake, shorter gigs with the US Geological Survey, Ma’aden (The Saudi Arabian Mining Company), Geologix, US Gold, Agnico-Eagle, Rare Element Resources, back to Agnico-Eagle, plus an assortment of consulting jobs.

Exploration success has been varied, but I had my best luck in Saudi Arabia. With the USGS I examined the ancient workings at Ad Duwayhi in 1994. With the help of USGS and Ma’aden personnel the resource is over 2 million ounces of gold. Now if they could just find enough water for processing. My early work on the Tawilah-Monsourah mineral belt and suture zone in 2001 led Ma’aden personnel to discover + 4 million ounces gold at Monsourah from 2003 to present.

I have made extraordinary friends from around the world and here in Nevada. The GSN has been an integral part of both professional development and friendships.

Long live the GSN and all of us!