Back in Cornwall for the September sundowner

Only a week ago we were in Quebec City for the last day of the IMPC. Now we are back in beautiful Cornwall, which has had a late surge in tourism due to Brexit. The value of sterling has fallen by 10% (a good time for overseas companies to sponsor an MEI Conference!), such that many Brits have decided to holiday in UK and many international tourists are taking advantage of the pound by visiting Britain.

Cornwall has also had a surge due to the BBC screening its 2nd series of Poldark, and there are many visiting the areas where the series has been filmed, particularly the mining areas in west Cornwall.

Wheal Owles, Poldark's Wheal Leisure in the TV series

It was interesting talking to delegates in Canada last week. Many Canadians have visited Europe and the UK, but few ventured into the remote area of Cornwall. A great pity, as although the county is renowned for its mining heritage and its evocative ruined engine houses, it is still a hive of mining activity. The only remaining mines are the china clay operations around St. Austell, but here in west Cornwall there are many service companies, small consultancies, and of course the Camborne School of Mines. Many of these are represented each month at the Cornwall Mining Sundowner, held on the penultimate Thursday of each month, in the summer months in Falmouth's Chain Locker pub, where we get together to ruminate over mining issues and life in general.

Tonight's sundowner was dominated by Camborne School of Mines past and present staff and former students. It was particularly good to see Weiguo Xie at his first sundowner. Weiguo has recently been appointed mineral processing lecturer at CSM and will be involved with research on modelling and simulation. He has a PhD from the old University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), where he was supervised by Jan Cilliers, and also spent 5 years at Australia's JKMRC, during which time we met at Comminution '12 in Cape Town. He is obviously loving living in Falmouth and we hope he becomes one of the sundowner 'regulars'.

Also good to catch up with Chris Bryan, lecturer at CSM and an MEI consultant to Biohydromet '18, mineral processing lecturer Rob Fitzpatrick, who was also in Quebec last week, and Pat Hegarty, mineral processing researcher at CSM. And to make up the mineral processing complement, CSM mineral processing graduates Pete Walsh and Nick Wilshaw.

With CSM mineral processors, Pete, Nick, Weiguo, Rob, Chris and Pat

In the photo below Barbara is chatting with last night's non-mineral processors, including (seated) former CSM mining lecturer Tony Batchelor and former Director Frances Wall, who has just returned from an interesting trip to Mongolia.

So, overseas people, although it is a long journey, I am sure that you will find a trip to Cornwall a rewarding experience, particularly if it coincides with one of our sundowners. Let me know if you are coming down here and I will advise you of the venue. The next sundowner will be October 20th, hopefully at CSM's campus, Penryn.

Twitter @barrywills