Nancy Rogers

About me

I was born/grew up in: I grew up in Dover, NL.

I now live in: I now live in Hare Bay, NL which is about 5 kilometres from where I grew up.

I completed my training/education at: I don’t have any formal training for this career. We always spent a lot of time travelling outdoors, in the natural environment (hiking, camping, canoeing, and kayaking). After my husband took the prospectors course which gave him the Genuine Prospectors certification. we started planning trips for prospecting. We acquired the basic tools for prospecting. Hammer, compass, GPS and magnification lens. My husband taught me what he knew, and we continued to learn as we went along.

What I do at work

What I do depends on the time of year. When the weather is suitable, and sometimes even when it isn’t, we are outside, in the country. Normally, the places we go are off the beaten track. We can spend 10-12 hours a day bushwacking our way through forest and scrub. We climb up hills and rocks, over fallen trees, etc. You have to be in good physical condition to prospect for minerals!

We keep track of where we are using compass, maps, and GPS. We use special digging tools to expose rocks. If we find something of interest, we use other tools to break off samples. These are catalogued and sent to an assay office. The assay office will perform various chemical tests on the rock to identify the minerals present. If it is a valuable mineral, we will complete the paperwork to stake a claim. The claim is a piece of land measuring 500 meters by 500 meters. If our claim is approved, we are the only ones who can explore for minerals in that area. If the claim turns out to have a large amount of valuable mineral, we will have a good chance of getting a company to option the claims. Then they do the work, and you get royalties if the claim becomes a mine.

In the winter months we do most of the paper work and we also plan what we are going to do next season. Sometimes this is looking for new places to explore. Sometimes we plan which of our claims we need to work on next. We do this because when you stake a claim you can’t just hold on to it; you must complete a certain amount of exploration work each year. This has to be recorded and reported to the government.

The thing that excites me the most about my work is being outside but there is a lot of research and paperwork that must be done. Working a claim is also expensive. The government provides funding to help prospectors explore for minerals. But you have to complete a lot of forms.  It all takes time!

When you are looking for likely places to find minerals, you need to do a lot of research. We spend a lot of time doing research on what has been done in the past. There may have been signs of minerals in an area years ago. But at that time, it might have been too expense to develop. As technology changes all the time, new technologies and procedures might make that area profitable now. So, we might plan to explore there and may stake a claim of our own.

My career path is

I’ve always been an outdoors person. When I was young, we spent lots of time travelling in the country, fishing and berry picking. I don’t remember thinking about careers then, but if I did, I’m sure it would have had to be something that took me outdoors regularly.

My husband took a 2-week prospector’s course. As we hiked and camped in the natural environment, he shared what he had learned with me. If you spend time in nature, you know you are always looking at your surroundings. That includes rocks. We learned how to identify and find various minerals in the rocks. One of the guys providing training during the 2-week course and went on to discover a huge nickel deposit in Voisey’s Bay, NL. That certainly got us thinking we could make a living doing this type of work.

Once you find something of value, you are hooked. You can’t wait to get out there again! We continued to develop our knowledge and expertise. We read books, magazines, and spoke with more experienced prospectors. We also used a lot of online resource materials. Over the years we found some gold, other precious metals, emeralds and chevron amethyst. Chevron amethyst has a banded or “V” pattern caused by amethyst and quartz layered together. Eventually I earned the Genuine Prospector status. A Genuine Prospector is one who has completed the NL Department of Industry, Energy and Technology’s prospector’s training course or equivalent work experience prospecting with a company or on your own. 

I got into jewelry making when I was living in Ontario. When I returned to Newfoundland, I could not find any local Labradorite stone. Labradorite is a type of Feldspar. It shows colors ranging from blue and green to red. Everything that was available was from Madagascar. I made some contacts with the Inuit association. I started buying from the Inuit Association and after a time of trial and error I became proficient in cutting and polishing Labradorite. It was a huge learning curve! You need to understand the structure of the rock to expose the colors hidden inside. For example, if you cut the stone on the wrong angle, you won’t see any of the beautiful colors. Then you have to find the right plane and cut again thus losing more rock in the process. I had to learn how to use several different tools and techniques. When I started it took me about 4 hours to create one pendant. Now I can do it in about an hour. Besides using Labradorite in my jewelry, I also cut other Newfoundland stones. For example, I use Virginite from Baie Verte, Fluorspar from St Lawrence, Amethyst from Trinity Bonavista Bay, and The Dover Fault Granite.

We are now concentrating more on prospecting. We are in a modern-day gold rush in Newfoundland. A number of companies found some very high readings of gold and lots of mining companies have therefore moved into Newfoundland to explore for minerals. If you are a prospector with properties for option, you now have a good chance of optioning your property to these companies. So, you must take advantage of this opportunity while the hype is still on. Therefore, my jewelry business has taken a back seat for now. But I always keep an eye out for more crystals!

I am motivated by

Being outdoors, in the country! Knowing that going to see new landscapes keeps me going. It’s hard work and the days are long. You have to love the country if you are going to prospect for minerals. Also, I love knowing that I might find a source of minerals that will give jobs to a lot of people and help our economy.

How I affect peoples’ lives

Prospecting provides an important source of future mineral development. Our modern society could not operate without minerals. Gold, copper silver and many other metals are used in a lot of the electronics we use. The batteries used in electric vehicles contain metals such as lithium, nickel, and copper. As a prospector, I’m helping find new sources of these metals that will help keep our economy running.

Outside of work I

To me, prospecting is not work. When I’m not actually doing prospecting, I’m planning our next trip! When I’m prospecting out on the land, I’m doing what I love to do; camping, hiking, canoeing, etc.

My advice to others

 Ask yourself “do you like being in the natural environment”? Prospectors spend a lot of time out in the environment, so you must love it! And you must be able to tolerate the flies, roughing it in a tent overnight in wet or hot days, etc. You need to be physically fit. It’s not expensive to get into this career. You need to be able to use a compass, hammer, and GPS. If you are interested in rocks, this might be the career for you. You must be able to do paperwork, use a computer to do research, apply for grants, and do assessment reports on your property.