Founders
ERII was conceived of by innovators and educators from a desire to cultivate the next generation of mining professionals.
Lauren Terry, Executive Director
Lauren Terry is the Executive Director of ERII. She studies the formation of precious metal-bearing veins in epithermal deposits worldwide, as well as linkages between the epithermal and geothermal environments. Lauren has a diverse educational and career background, first studying geosciences at the University of Colorado Boulder and interning at the US Geological Survey and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. She was a secondary school science teacher before beginning her graduate studies at Mines. Lauren obtained her M.Sc. in Economic Geology in 2018 and later published her work in Economic Geology. She earned her PhD from the Colorado School of Mines in 2025. She has consulted on projects in Japan, California, Idaho, and British Columbia for juniors, mid-tiers, and majors. Lauren has presented her work at conferences both internationally and in the US. She volunteers her spare time to numerous professional organizations, including the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) and the Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits (SGA). Lauren has also worked for the Association of American State Geologists (AASG) and the American Institute of Professional Geologists (AAPG). She is currently the Conference Chair of the Denver Mineral Exploration Symposium (DMES), an event she helped build from the ground up, now in its third year. Lauren plans to continue her research pursuits while mentoring students at Mines through the Center to Advance the Science of Exploration to Reclamation in Mining (CASERM).
Thomas Monecke, Program Director
Thomas Monecke is the Program Director of ERII. He is an economic geologist who specializes in the formation of base and precious metal deposits in modern and ancient volcanic arcs. He has more than 30 years of experience in geological research and mineral exploration and has authored or co-authored approximately 120 journal papers, book chapters, government publications, and field guides during that period. Thomas graduated from the University of Freiberg, Germany, with a M.Sc. in 1996. He obtained his Ph.D. from the same university, with his doctoral thesis focusing on the anatomy of a volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposit in northern Australia. Between 2002 and 2008, Thomas conducted post-doctoral research at the Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany, the University of Ottawa, and the Geological Survey of Canada on modern and ancient gold-rich volcanic-hydrothermal systems. In 2006, Thomas received the Waldemar Lindgren Award from the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG). He joined the CSM in 2008 where he teaches economic geology. Thomas runs a large research group and supervises graduate students working on a diverse range of hydrothermal ore deposits around the world. He serves as the Director of the Center to Advance the Science of Exploration to Reclamation in Mining (CASERM) and currently is the Program Chair of the Denver Mineral Exploration Symposium (DMES).