INNOVATION Mar-Apr 2020

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a giant ammonite fossil. Found originally in 1947 by geologist Chuck Newmarch while mapping coal seams in Fernie’s Coal Valley, the little-known fossil, thought to be Canada’s largest, achieved 21 st -century fame after Randell tweeted the picture. “It was pretty crazy,” he says, resulting in an interview with The Washington Post , as well as a request for verification from Snopes, a widely read online fact-checker. “People just couldn’t believe the size of it, or that it was even real.” Randell hopes for more excitement like this in the future. “I thought this was a little pet project at first,” he says, “where I would trundle out once every couple of months and talk to a couple of kids about dinosaurs and rocks, but it’s become much bigger. There’s no reason it couldn’t be a Below Canada thing, not just Below BC. It’s grown so much already: we’ve been invited to catalogue the specimens in the Royal BC Museum’s collection in

Copper ore from Crystal Lake Mining’s Newmont Lake Project

Victoria, we’ve been invited up to the Yukon. There’s just no end in sight for this, and we intend to keep building the collection, keep engaging with the public, keep changing public perceptions about mining, and keep sparking people’s natural curiosity about the natural world.”

ENGINEERS AND GEOSCIENTISTS BC RESPONDS TO COVID-19 Like most organizations, Engineers and Geoscientists BC has been working hard to manage the operational challenges the COVID-19 virus presents. We are committed to keeping everyone’s well- being front and centre while ensuring that our operations are resilient. We put a COVID-19 response plan in place to ensure that our staff have the tools and technology they need to keep our operations running remotely, and cancelled or postponed upcoming events to help minimize the potential impact of the virus. On March 17, we temporarily closed our office in line with the advice of public health officials, but our staff continue to work remotely to maintain our operations. The well-being and safety of our employees and our community is our top priority, and we are continuing to monitor and respond to this rapidly- changing situation to ensure we can maintain our operations in a healthy environment for everyone. For the latest information, visit egbc.ca/COVID-19 .

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