C NTACT A PUBLICATION OF THE WYOMING GEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

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1 C NTACT A PUBLICATION OF THE WYOMING GEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION VOLUME S, NO. 5 JULY 2010 PRESIDENT S LETTER Steve Reid Good News! The 1 st Annual WGA Scholarship Golf Tournament was well attended and successful. All who participated enjoyed a beautiful afternoon of golf with great weather and a little bit of money made its way to benefit scholarship awards. Put the 2 nd Annual Scholarship Tournament on your schedule for next summer! A new Membership Directory with photos is going to the printer this week. Thank Laurie Fletcher for all her hard work next time you see her. She is also diligently working as Editor to the upcoming Guidebook, which is progressing nicely. Key papers include horizontal drilling in the Niobrara at Silo Field by Ron Brown, horizontal drilling in the Parkman Sandstone by Dave Wheeler, and the Bakken Shale of the Williston by Steve Sonnenberg. The field conference is coming together very nicely. Graeme Finley, JoAnn True, and Jordan Revielle have assembled an excellent program that begins with a continuing education short course on shale gas reservoirs by Creties Jenkins, followed by two days of technical talks and two days of field trips emphasizing unconventional energy resources. Make plans to attend as we will be on the Casper College campus in the shadow of Dee the Mammoth! JULY 2010 WGA MEETINGS Meetings are held at the Casper Petroleum Club A lunch buffet ($10.50) is served from 11:15 noon Speaker s presentation begins at noon Reservations: info@wyogeo.org or Guests are always welcome! 9 July Quinton Hennigh Rattlesnake Hills Gold Project 16 July James Dahill Some Landslides You Fix, Some You Name! 23 July William Stuart Mineral Management 30 July TBA Please see website for information AUGUST 4-8 FIELD CONFERENCE I NSIDE T HIS I SSUE 2 Luncheon Abstracts 3-4 Field Conference Information 6 Golf Tournament Pictures 7 Member News 10 Annual Update to AAPG, RMS Insert Field Conference Registration

2 LUNCHEON SPEAKER ABSTRACTS 9 July Quinton Hennigh Evolving Gold Corp Rattlesnake Hills Gold Project The Rattlesnake Hills gold prospect is located in Natrona County, Wyoming, approximately 70 kilometers west of the city of Casper and consists of 10,000 acres. Evolving Gold acquired a 100% undivided interest in the prospect. Rattlesnake Hills is a volcanic hosted alkalic gold system similar to multi-million ounce gold deposits such as Cripple Creek (Colorado). Assay results from the first phase of drilling have defined a large zone of gold mineralization which extends from surface to at least 550 meters deep and remains open at depth and on 3 sides. The average grade at Rattlesnake is 0.96 gpt gold. Contained in this zone are 2 long intervals of high grade (146 m of 2.92 gpt and 131 m of 2.84 gpt) which are 65 meters apart. 16 July James Dahill WYDOT Some Landslides You Fix, Some You Name! The challenge of reconstructing 38 miles of roadway and stabilizing numerous landslides has been an ongoing battle since As engineering geologists with the DOT struggle with designing a wider, safer, and improved roadway over Togwotee Pass, the mountain fights back against years of drought and heavy equipment changing the landscape. US highway 26/287, located in Teton and Fremont counties, traverses multiple areas of mapped landslide terrain from Moran Junction to Dubois. The roadway has a history of locally named areas that slide, sometimes yearly, which creates problems for the maintenance forces and the roadway designers trying to fix them. Areas such as Hickerson Curve, Wingert, and County Line slides were well known, but other areas kept quiet until most recently. A small bump in the road was the welcoming sign from what is now known as the Mega-Slide. 23 July William Stuart First Interstate Wealth Management Mineral Management Mineral Management issues will be discussed including: Determining ownership, location, and amount Monitoring royalty revenue Annual tax preparation Tracking mineral status Estate planning

3 Join us for the 2010 WGA Field Conference At: Nichols Auditorium, Casper College, Casper, Wyoming, August 4 8, 2010 Featuring: 1 Day Short Course See next page in newsletter Speakers include (subject to change): Keynote: John Lorenz, Past President AAPG Steve Sonnenberg Fracture Development in Bakken, Antelope Field, Williston Basin Scott Cooper Fracture Variability in Tensleep, SE WY Creties Jenkins Estimating Resources & Reserves in Unconventional Gas Reservoirs Tom Anderson Geologic & Hydrologic Setting of Teapot Dome & EGS Geothermal Potential Colby Drechsel Historic Perspective of Crude Oil Pipelines Patrick Lowery 3-D Visualization for CBM Reserves Ranie Lynds Stratigraphic Evaluation of Reservoir & Seal in a Natural CO2 Field, SW WY Geoffrey Thyne PRB CBM: Perspectives on Water Production Ron Brown A Case for Further Development of Silo Field Mark Doelger Wind Project Chris Bucholz Chevron Wind Farm, Casper, WY Tad True Pipeline Constraints from Bakken Production Andrew Govert Petrographic Analysis of Lance Channel Sandstones, Pinedale Anticline, WY Nick Jones Thesis on PRB Coals Peter Moreland Pennsylvanian Gothic Shale Gas Resources Play in the Paradox Basin Joe Dumesnil Assessment & Stimulation Optimization of Niobrara C Bench in PRB Greg Adams Sheep Mountain Uranium Project Mark Williams Bakken Geophone Array Dave Wheeler Discovery & Development of Savageton Field, PRB, WY John McLennan Modeling Fluid Invasion & Hydraulic Fracture Propagation in Fractured Hydrocarbon Reservoirs Kent Sundell Dee the Mammoth Joe Dumesnil Shale Stimulation Dag Nummedal Carbon Sequestration Field Trips will visit local Cretaceous outcrops including the highly fractured Mowry Formation and various unconventional energy projects in the Casper area. Logistical details will be given at the registration desk, during the technical sessions, posted online the week before the conference or call the WGA office at Keep checking for updates.

4 August 4 th Field Conference Short Course Appraising and Developing Shale Gas Reservoirs Course Description This course provides practical insights and tools for use in identifying, appraising, and developing shale gas reservoirs. We will review the origin of shales and shale gas, and discuss the mechanisms of shale gas production. We will focus on the techniques used to analyze reservoir parameters and performance, and apply these to numerous projects including the Barnett, Fayetteville, Woodford, Haynesville, Lewis, Marcellus, and Antrim shales. A course notebook will be provided along with.pdf files of the course materials. Course Outline Introduction Geology Geochemistry Geophysics Petrophysics Well Performance Drilling and Completions Estimating Resources and Reserves Case Studies Instructor Creties Jenkins is a Vice-President for DeGolyer and MacNaughton in Dallas where he specializes in the characterization and modeling of sandstone, coal, and shale gas reservoirs. He began his career with Tenneco Oil in 1986 as a geological engineer and worked as a reservoir engineer, petrophysicist, and production geologist for ARCO from Creties has served as a Technical Editor, Distinguished Lecturer, and Distinguished Author for SPE and was the President of the Energy Minerals Division of AAPG. He received a M.S. degree in Geology and a B.S. degree in Geological Engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines. Creties is a registered professional engineer and a registered professional geologist in Texas Please see caspercollege.edu or wyogeo.org for directions N TATE MUSEUM Nichols Auditorium NICHOLS AUD.

5 Upcoming PTTC Workshops Risk and Uncertainty Analysis for Unconventional Resource Plays Energy Epicenter COGA/RMAG Tuesday, July 6, 2010, 8:30 am 5 pm Denver Athletic Club, Fee: $195 Instructor: Gary Citron, Rose and Associates, LLP Register online at: Field Trip: Niobrara Formation, northern Colorado Front Range: an outcrop analog for shale gas resource plays throughout the US Energy Epicenter COGA/RMAG Saturday, July 10, 2010, 8:30 am 5 pm, Fee: $125 Instructors: Edmund R. Gus Gustason, Enerplus Resources Corp; Marshall Deacon, Noble Energy Inc. Register online at: Characterization of Madison Limestone Petrophysical Properties Preliminary step for Sequestration Permitting Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 8:30 am 5 pm Colorado School of Mines; Ben Parker Student Center, Ballroom C Fee: $195, includes food at breaks, class notes, and PDH certificate Instructors: Dr. Geoffrey Thyne, Enhanced Oil Recovery Inst., Univ of Wyoming, Dr. James Myers, Department of Geology and Geophysics and Director of the Wyoming Carbon Technology Institute Bakken Petroleum System Classroom and Core Workshop Friday, September 17, 2010, 8:30 am 5 pm USGS Core Facility, Fee: $195, includes lunch, class notes, and PDH certificate Instructors: Dr. Steve Sonnenberg and Dr. Rick Sarg, Colorado School of Mines Completion & Stimulation(s) of Horizontal Wells in Tight and Unconventional Gas Reservoirs Wednesday - Thursday, September 28-29, 2010, 8:30 am 5 pm Denver Athletic Club, Fee: $390, includes lunch, class notes, and PDH certificate Instructor: Larry K. Britt, Britt Rock Mechanics Laboratory at Tulsa University RMAG/PTTC Fall Symposium: Overcoming Geologic Challenges with Advanced Drilling and Completions Techniques Thursday, September 30, 2010, 8:00 am 5:00 pm Downtown Marriott Hotel Class Descriptions and Register Online: For more information, contact Mary Carr, , mcarr@mines.edu

6 st Annual Golf Extravaganza! OK, it wasn t terribly extravagant, but the tournament was a great success. We don t have all the numbers in, but as of this writing, we made very close to $1,000 that will be paid directly to scholarship recipients. Thank you to all who participated and to those who generously donated to the scholarships despite not participating in the tournament. We d also like to thank all of you who have donated to the scholarships in the past; without you, we wouldn t have any scholarship funds! We d also like to pay special thanks to Century Wireline Services for their gracious donation of a hole prize. Special thanks go out to Neal Neumiller of North Finn, LLC for his donation of homemade, chocolate chip cookies, which were enjoyed be everyone except Graeme, who never managed to get his hands on one. Here is how the tournament ended: 1 st Place - Aaron Stewart, Dayton Lewis, Travis Boam, and Annie Humphrey 2nd Place Steve Reid, Mike Hawks, Chuck Dow, Dan Barnes 3 rd Place Brian Pile, Bill Pile, Chad Underwood, Dom Madia Longest Drive (Women s) Annie Humphrey Longest Drive (Men s) Steve Reid Closest to the Pin Tom Doll Dayton Lewis won the raffle and chose a very nice push-style golf cart as his prize. The WGA sincerely thanks all of the participants and we look forward to seeing you next year! Sincerely, The WGA Golf Tournament Committee

7 MEMBER NEWS Field Trip Opportunity September 12 th & 13 th Our luncheon speaker from May 21 st, Don Ranta, has offered WGA members the opportunity to join him and the Denver Region Exploration Geologist s Society on a trip to visit rare earth element and gold occurrences in the northern Black Hills. Proposed Itinerary: Meet in Spearfish, SD Sunday, September 12 th Presentation and field trip of Rare Element Resource s Bear Lodge Project This alkaline igneous complex hosts gold mineralization in a variety of settings in addition to important, carbonatite-hosted rare earth element mineralization. Drilling and other exploration activities will be ongoing at the time of the tour. Monday, September 13 th Visit Goldcorp s producing Wharf Mine near Lead, SD If you are interested in attending this trip, please let Beth at the WGA office know! If there is enough interest, WGA may rent a bus. FOR SALE 39 X 60 Wide and 37 Tall Drafting Table Nice portable top to turnover, 21 rods to raise back of top Please contact Fran Wroble at for more information.

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10 Annual Report AAPG, Rocky Mountain Section Affiliated Society Report; Wyoming Geological Association The current WGA membership stands at 425 members. Below is a summary of our financial budget for calendar year 2010: Income: $97, Expenses: $95, In 2009, the WGA Annual Field Conference consisted of one day of technical talks and a three day field trip around the Big Horn Basin led by Kent Sundell. The technical sessions saw 105 registrants and the field trip consisted of 60 registrants. The title of the conference was Spectacular Wyoming Geology: From Outcrop to Prospect. The 2010 Annual Field Conference is scheduled for August We have two days of technical talks planned, a short course on shale gas and two field trips in the Casper area. The title of the conference is Unconventional Energy Resources with emphasis on hydrocarbon potential in the Cretaceous Niobrara and Mowry Shales of Wyoming. A guidebook is currently undergoing the editing process and will be available at the conference. The WGA continues the tradition of weekly luncheon meetings with speakers every Friday. The WGA is in the final editing process of a newly expanded Wyoming Stratigraphic Nomenclature Chart that should be ready for distribution in This publication includes a database of pertinent information on every formation listed on the chart. The WGA will be hosting the 2011 RMS Conference in Cheyenne, Wyoming. That committee has been formed and is deep in the planning process under the leadership of Chairperson Lynnette George.

11 Wyoming Geological Association P.O. Box 545 Casper, WY (307) Fax (307) OFFICERS President Steve Reid Consulting Geologist President-Elect Graeme Finley Goolsby, Finley & Associates 1st Vice President JoAnn True True Oil 2nd Vice President Mike Hawks Linc Energy Secretary/Treasurer Amber Robbins Bureau of Land Management Editor Julia Lemaster Goolsby, Finley & Associates Past President Craig Smith Trihydro Corporation 2010 COMMITTEES AAPG Delegates Mike Kozimko Tom Anderson Advertising & Office Administrator Beth Anderson Continuing Education Ralph Specht Dance Martha Horn Field Conference 2010 General Chair Graeme Finley Library Dean Stilwell Membership & Directory Beth Anderson Nomenclature Committee Carl Babb Don Cardinal Gary Winter Paleontological Resources Brent Breithaupt Publicity & Environmental Issues Rémelle Burton Olson Scholarship Kent Sundell SPE Liaison Dave Chase Stratigraphic Committee Carl Babb Don Cardinal Lyn George Gary Winter U.W. Liaison Amber Robbins CONTACT Submission deadline for the August issue is Monday, July 26th. All ads must be prepaid. Send ad and payment to: WGA PO Box 545, Casper WY CONTACT ADVERTISING RATES Full Page 7.5 x 9.5 1/2 Page 7.5 x 4.5 1/4 Page 3.5 x 4.5 Business Card 3.5 x 2 Various Sizes $3.50 per column inch per month ($10 minimum) $100/month $1000/year $50/month $500/year $25/month $250/year $10/month $100/year Advertising space is also available in the membership directory and the annual field conference guidebook. Discounts are available for advertising in all three publications.

12 Wyoming Geological Association P.O. Box 545 Casper, Wyoming Website: Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Casper, Wyoming Permit No. 299 July 2010 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Hennigh Lunch Dahill Lunch Stuart Lunch TBA Lunch