Ray Wooldridge, also a founding Committee Member of GEMSA NT, holds a diploma in Applied Chemistry and a Diploma in Assaying. Ray is a Chartered Chemist, a Member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Of note, Ray is also the last formally qualified Precious Metal Assayer still practicing in Australia. Ray has some 55 years extensive experience in mineral chemistry, both in Australia and overseas and has 37 years in the NT Mining industry, particularly with the Tennant Creek 1OCG type mineralisation and the arsenopyrite of the Pine Creek Geosyncline. Ray developed the multiple pouring system used in most Fire Assay laboratories in Australia and internationally and formulated the 104 flux [or derivative of] which is the mainstay flux of the international gold mining industry. Ray has particular expertise in sample preparation of coarse gold ores and fire assay for gold, particularly in difficult ores. Ray’s experience also includes the analysis of iron, manganese, base metal, uranium, rare earths and lithium ores and multi element assay services for Mineral Exploration.

In 1985 Ray established a sophisticated laboratory equipped with state-of-the-art AAS, ICP-OES and ICP-MS analytical instrumentation in Pine Creek and has continued to service the mining and mineral exploration industry in the Northern Australia ever since.