A conference was planned, people were writing and organizing, and then thing went awry. Here is what I wrote on the topic of Mining Research and Education in anticipation of the now postponed conference. I post these writings now, rather than hide them for a year or more, in the hope that controversial as they are, they may contribute to argument and discussion—hence the formulation of answers by those more knowledgeable than I am. The first question posed by the conference organizers was: What are the best steps to take to promote the essential need for R&D in the Mining Industry? Here is my answer:
Sunday is a time for reading. Actually, I spent yesterday kind-of sailing, as described in a separate piece below. I also cleaned out the attic and found some of my old text books on groundwater. Last evening I reread them, and here is a review of some classics that reward attention:
Wandering the by-ways of the Internet, this news release caught my eye: More than 12 million tons of radioactive waste will be moved away from the Colorado River, which provides drinking water for more than 25 million people across the West. The Department of Energy said the radioactive tailings about 750 feet from the river near Moab in southeastern Utah will be moved, predominantly by rail, to a proposed holding site at Crescent Junction, Utah, about 30 miles from the Colorado River.
The weekend was an orgy of hedonistic southern California pleasure: expensive coffee in the sun; a bike ride along the nine-mile beach; sandcastles besides the incoming waves; wonder at the ski kites that dominate Belmont Shores; and then to San Pedro harbor where we took off on my daughter’s 28-ft long Westsail. I first saw this yacht six years ago sitting high and dry on a dusty back lot east of Palm Springs. Years later and many hours and dollars of work, it now floats proud in the slip, a brilliant blue hull with red trim. We pottered about Los Angeles harbor, engrossed by the big ships and the tankers and the hoards of small boats that ply the calm waters inside the breakwater. We too stayed behind the protection of the breakwater, for beyond the waves were crashing on the rocks and there was news of coast guard action to help sailors in distress. The wind was blowing hard, very hard, all up and down the coast. And the conversation turned to the way the inland desert is heating up and sucking in cool air from the ocean causing the very winds we enjoy and/or fear.
Stuck in the warm sun besides the beach in southern California this week, I still had time to look up some papers on mine open pit lakes. This was done a part of an ongoing debate about sustainable development. I debate as follows: obey the law in spirit and verse–and if the jurisdiction is too corrupt to do it correctly, practice responsible mining; drop the concept of sustainable development in the context of mining–the words have too long being incorrectly used to promote irrational ideas to be of much value any more; rather talk about responsible mining–a broader and more ethical approach that incorporates the sensible parts of sustainable development; and finally make sure that when the mine is worked out, people can continue to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in, around, and in spite of the mine. Spook is a good example of what I mean. No chance for China here though.
This blog has just received the ultimate accolade. My technical editor informs me that China has blocked access to this blog. I know I say a few things that are not totally nice about everybody. But I never imagined that what I write could pose a threat to the stability of so great a nation as China. Maybe my comments about the number of accidents in their mines set them off. Or maybe it was my statement that if Chinese miners belonged to trade unions maybe fewer would die. Oh well, it is always easier to censor, than to change a system, or save a life. The good part about this ban of my blog in China is that I never have to be polite to those who urge on me “understanding” of the greatness of socialism, the Chinese culture, or of Castro and his antique buddies.
PS. After first posting the above, I was told that all of WordPress is blocked by China. Now I am even prouder to be part of a free community feared by oppressors.
How can you not love a city where you can do the following? Down the hill from home beneath a weak sun and through pusillanimous snow, tossed around like confetti at a desultory wedding, to an ugly shopping center. You know the type: cheap concrete bricks bespattered by beautiful graffiti, and down ill-formed stairs of dirty tile to a library of grubby-fingered books. Hence to a back room called, grandly, Meeting Room 191.
After setting out old metal & plastic chairs & tables, we settled down with a pile of colored paper in front of us. A fat lady (and most Canadians are not fat, so she sort of sticks out) announces that for the next hour we will have an origami lesson.
Here is a story that hit my e-mail inbox sent by somebody from somewhere. The publisher is AAP NewsWire. The publication is AAP Australian Sport. The author is John Coomber, Senior Sports Writer. I confess I do not know the places or the people of whom he writes. But the story is interesting and there is in it my favorite sting-in-the-scopion’s-tail: for who is to say that sport is less “dangerous” than mining? Here is the story as written by John Coomber:
A road that winds so much and goes up and down so many steep grades could have be built for one reason only: to provide access to mines. And indeed that is the case, although today the road provides access to beautiful scenery, quaint towns, and expensive properties. I refer to California Route 299. It erratically traverses three mountain passes in north west California linking the coast and the inland Central Valley by a route no sane engineer would choose if efficiency were the first consideration.
I add Route 299 to Colorado Route 141 as being amongst the most spectacular and beautiful roads to travel. Why fly to Australia or New Zealand for scenery when these routes are right at hand? I selected this route by chance. I had spent the Easter weekend in Newport, Oregon marvelling at how different the United States is to Canada: TV shows from CNN asking what Jesus would do about global warming (I did not watch the show, so I do not know what the final verdict is); talk-show hosts making comments about sports teams using words I have never heard before and the meaning of which I have no clue; and nice warm California weather made hotter by a non-functioning car air conditioner.
I am tempted to pontificate about the sustainability of a region after the cessation of mining when I traverse routes like 299 and 141. Here is tangible, living proof that we can mine and then turn the area into a high-priced, livable environment. I refrain from saying the obvious, which is probably too much, for there surely are downsides to my admiration for these areas and I do not want to rouse sleeping emotions. All I ask is that you go take a look and then get back to us with your counter arguments.
In South Africa at the start of my consulting career, I was called in to limit erosion from an old sandy pile of tailings close to the city. Vegetation would not grow in the acid materials that were cemented by negative pore pressures to a hard crust. We read all the literature of the seventies but found no answer. The gut feel solution was to cut a series of benches, one-foot high by one-foot wide, with vertical and slightly inward-sloping near-horizontal surfaces. Rain fell on the near-horizontal benches, ponded, and seeped into the tailings. Nothing ran off and erosion was controlled.
