The view from England: The UK’s burning decision on coal
Boris Johnson’s government seems set to approve the first new underground coal mine in the U.K. for 36 years. Such an outcome (a decision is…
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The view from England: Mining events avalanche
Rejoice, in-person events are suddenly back, with Mines and Money, Indaba, PDAC and, of course, the Venice Biennale crowding our calendars. I expect most of…
The view from England: Miners suffering from unintended consequences
As mining booms, the industry is suffering from the employment consequences of earlier bear-market bites. Most of us are aware from an early age that…
The view from England: Gold’s copper foil
Like opposing characters in a literary plot, gold and copper highlight aspects of the other’s attributes and values. Writers frequently use opposing characters to build…
Odds ‘n’ Sods: Local justice in Bulgaria
By the start of 1995, I’d been working as an exploration geologist for Rio Tinto in Turkey for about 18 months. I was unhappy with…
The View from England: Time for iMINE
The mining industry could learn something from the late Steve Jobs, and introduce iMINE. No, not a chemical compound containing a carbon-nitrogen bond, nor a…
The View from England: Mining’s Royal lesson
Let’s be honest, it comes as no surprise that bullying, racism and sexism can be found amongst miners. What is shocking in the recently released…
Odds ‘n’ Sods: Hiring can be a fine art
Recruiting geologists and engineers for a project can be a tricky business. For all sorts of reasons, someone who comes across well in an interview…
The View from England: Arabian call to action at Future Minerals Forum
A mining conference without alcohol, and at which many delegates left when Mark Bristow and Robert Friedland took to the stage. You wouldn’t think such…
The View from England: It’s the economy, stupid
It is traditional at this time of the year to make resolutions and predictions. In our industry the latter invariably includes the forecasting of metal…
The View from England: On the rocks
There is one aspect of geology that makes even us mining engineers sit up and take notice, namely the relationship it has with whisky. I…
The View from England: Nubian gateway opens
Africa has dominated news in the United Kingdom since a new variant of Covid-19 (now called Omicron) was identified in South Africa on November 25….