Michael D. Campbell, P.G., P.H., C.P.G., President and CEO of the I2M Corporation (Texas), announced today that the I2M Board of Directors has approved the engagement of Roger W. Lee, Ph.D., P.G., as Technical Advisor. He will report to Mr. Campbell and the I2M Board of Directors on matters related to subsurface hydrogeochemical processes and to environmental matters during the permitting process on various projects, which will soon be underway.
Dr. Lee served with the U. S. Geological Survey for 30 years in the role as hydrogeologist and geochemist in the Water Resources and Research Divisions, and over the past 10 years he has served as a consultant to ERM in Houston, Texas, and Simm & Associates, LLC (Now NewFields). More recently, Dr. Lee has also been advising I2M Consulting, LLC, as an I2M Associate.
As an environmental geochemist working with environmental aqueous geochemistry, Dr. Lee worked on U.S. Geological Survey-assigned tasks associated with the occurrence of uranium mineralization in various parts of the U.S. From 1980-1999, he conducted geochemical investigations on more than 20 aquifer systems throughout the US. Basic data collection of groundwater from those aquifers included dissolved uranium and radium which were entered into the USGS groundwater database. Data collection included field data of oxidation/reduction characteristics in each sample. His team found several upgradient areas where groundwater was changing from oxidized to reduced conditions, indicative of potential capture and retention of uranium series elements that might have formed economic roll-front deposits. He collected samples of carbon-14 in groundwater in order to determine ages of groundwater from recharge to downgradient position.
Dr. Lee also assisted EPA Superfund program Region 6 on a number of mine sites in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Montana, and Arkansas. He investigated mining practices for metals copper, lead, zinc, iron, molybdenum, and others in those areas. As a consultant for ERM, Inc., in 2008-2009, Dr. Lee modeled geochemistry of neutralization of acid-mine drainage from the Holden Mine, and of waste solutions for Rio Tinto. He also assisted Goldcorp Inc. in evaluating hydrology and geochemistry, conducting sampling excursions at two gold mine sites in South Dakota. As a consultant for Sims & Associates, Dr. Lee provided groundwater and surface-water expertise in geochemistry, modeling treatment of acid-mine waters and the origins of the acid-mine waters for the Butte, Montana Copper mine owned by British Petroleum. He further provided advice on behalf of British Petroleum on mined metals’ smelter wastes on the site for the Black Eagle Superfund site in Great Falls, Montana.
Dr. Lee also conducted numerous determinations of groundwater discharge to surface water in streams in the U.S. using radon-222 (a short-lived isotope produced from alpha paradioactive decay of naturally occurring Radium-224) serving as a naturally occurring tracer of groundwater discharge to surface-water bodies.
In 2020, he was appointed by Mr. Campbell (Chairman of the AAPG’s Energy Mineral Division’s Uranium & REE Committee’s Advisory Group) as an Associate and helped prepare and review the 2020 Annual EMD Committee Report: “Beyond Hydrocarbons….The Rest Of The Story.” He also supported other publications (2018: more), (2017: more), and (2017: more), and served as the Senior Editor of Mr. Campbell’s Memoirs in 2022 (more).
Mr. Campbell remarked in his announcement: “Dr. Lee’s input will become increasingly important as we begin the permitting process of the I2M projects that will involve the TCEQ, the TRRC, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and then when production begins in the in-situ uranium recovery project sometime in the next few years, depending on how permitting goes.”
