Jim Viellenave (President)

Mr. Viellenave has been involved in the exploration for natural resources since 1975, first with Earth Sciences, Inc., a Colorado mining company. There he employed a variety of geochemical methods, including sulfur gases, O₂ and CO₂, and Mercury. Following that, he commercialized the Petrex passive soil gas technology for use in the petroleum, geothermal, and mining exploration industries. Under his leadership, the company took it from a research tool into the industry and made it a successful exploration method, using more than 250,000 samples in nearly 1,000 exploration projects around the world, including use of mass analysis and GCMS applications. In 1995, he founded GEC, specializing in sampling and analysis related to exploration and environmental geochemistry. GEC then merged with Direct Geochemical, and now operates a variety of surface geochemical methods, including active and passive soil gas sampling, soil and water sampling, and a full laboratory for analysis of organics, noble gases, inorganics, and metals. In addition, they have developed a series of sophisticated statistical methods for combining and networking complex data from multiple sources and developing an understanding of geochemical processes in resource exploration programs. Jim earned his BA and MA in Geography in 1971 and 1973.

John Fontana (Vice-President)

Mr. Fontana has over 20 years experience in geochemistry associated with resource exploration and development. He started his career in 1981 as a wellsite geologist were he gained experience with geophysical and lithologic logging, and all aspects of oil and gas drilling and completion operations. Soon after he became involved in developing geochemical exploration methods for Detex and GX Consultants divisions Xco. In 1986, he co-founded Direct Geochemical and has been providing geochemical exploration and environmental sampling, analytical and interpretation services ever since. In addition to providing traditional geochemical soil gas methods, Mr. Fontana has developed and adapted several new analytical, field and interpretation methods, published numerous articles and presentations on the subject, and provided expert testimony in the area of soil gas geochemistry. Mr. Fontana earned a BS in Geology, Physics, and Oceanography in 1981 from Humboldt State University in California.

David Seneshen, Ph.D. (Senior Geochemist)

Dr. Seneshen has been active in resource exploration for the past 13 years with Inco Exploration and Technical Services, Western Mining Corporation, and the Alberta Geological Survey. While employed with these organizations, surface geochemical exploration surveys were conducted to search for base- and precious-metal deposits in Canada, Chile, and Turkey, diamondiferous kimberlites in Alberta, and petroleum reservoirs in Canada and the United States. Dave has experience in the collection and analysis of soils, till, stream sediments, lake sediments, lake water, and vegetation tissue. Multivariate statistical methods have been applied to facilitate the interpretation of analytical data from these sample media. Dave earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in geology from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, and his Ph.D. in exploration geochemistry from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada in 1997. His doctorate research involved an in-depth evaluation of partial chemical extractions and their applicability to mineral exploration in areas of transported overburden.

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