The Summer Season of Cornish Mining Sundowners commences

The mining sundowner was back at Falmouth's Chain Locker pub last night for the summer months. However, the dozen or so who turned up were confined indoors due to the wet and cool conditions outside. Much of the conversation concerned the state of the mining industry, and the effect that it is having on members of the newly formed Cornwall Mining Alliance (posting of 19th May).

I was pleased to see CSM biohydrometallurgists Chris Bryan and Paul Norris. Chris is one of MEI's three consultants to next months Biohydromet '16, and both he and Paul will be presenting papers. We discussed progress of the event with Bentley Orchard, formerly of Weir Minerals, who is a member of a Cornish male-voice choir which will be entertaining us at the conference dinner at Hartlands, in the centre of the old Camborne-Redruth mining district.

Chris, Bentley, me and Paul

There was also talk of the forthcoming EU Referendum, with everyone I talked to in favour of staying in the EU. The referendum takes place on June 23rd, the date of the next sundowner at the Chain Locker, where we will be joined by delegates from Sustainable Minerals '16, thirsty after completing their late afternoon coastal path walk.

There was also some very sad news last night, of Richard Osman, a geologist who graduated from Camborne School of Mines with an MSc in Geology in 1998. He was the only British passenger on the EgyptAir plane which crashed yesterday en route to Cairo from Paris. Richard was travelling to do work for Centamin, a gold mining exploration and development company. Richard's second child was born only three weeks ago, and our thoughts are with his family and all who knew him.

Twitter @barrywills