MEGWA18 May 2022: The Winu-Ngapakarra Copper Gold Deposit

Hilke Dalstra
Principal Geologist, Rio Tinto
Hilke Jacob Dalstra, initiated his career in geoscience at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, where he attained a ‘Doctoraal’ in structural and economic geology. After military service, he moved to Australia to commence Ph.D. studies relating to Archean lode gold deposits at The Key Centre for Strategic Minerals, University of Western Australia under supervision of prof. David Groves and Dr John Ridley.
Following a brief period of consulting in the gold industry Hilke moved to Hamersley Iron in 1995, commencing what would prove to be a long-lasting association with Rio Tinto. Initially joining the ‘Resources Task Force’, Hilke was integral in the team whose mandate was to search for the next Mt Tom Price-style microplaty hematite deposit. In 2000 he joined Rio Tinto Exploration.
Discovery or co-discovery of a number of iron deposits and most recently the Winu and Ngapakarra copper-gold deposits resulted in him co-receiving the AMEC prospectors award and the Thayer Lindsley award.
Hilke’s main interests in geology are applying regional tectonics and structural and ore deposit geology to target generation and discovery.