Wouter Bleeker

Wouter Bleeker is a senior research scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada, based in Ottawa. A graduate from the Free University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands), and the University New Brunswick (Canada), he joined the GSC in 1994. His PhD research involved resolving the structural and stratigraphic complexity of the Thompson Nickel Belt, northern Manitoba, a mining camp still in active production. Since then he has undertaken similar studies on giant VMS deposits such as Kidd Creek, the setting of gold mineralization in the Abitibi, and younger analogs such as in central Newfoundland, and he has synthesized the geology of the Slave craton. Prior to joining the GSC, he has worked in industry in both Canada and Europe. In the Bergslagen District of Sweden, his research contributed to the discovery of the Lovisa stratiform Zn-Pb deposit. He has also lectured at the University of Botswana. His research focus is on characterizing the broader geological setting of mineral deposits, their genesis, and their structural evolution over time. He has worked across Canada and his research has helped to keep northern mining towns alive. Having also worked around the world, another research focus is to solve the plate tectonic puzzle of dispersed Archean craton fragments, linking ancient crustal fragments and their metallogenic belts in their pre-breakup configuration.