Summer has ended. Last night was the last of the summer sundowners at Falmouth's Chain Locker pub. Despite gusty winds and heavy rain, around 20 regulars were in attendance, and it was good to welcome a few new CSM students, recently enrolled on the MSc courses.
As always, there was a strong contingent from Cornish Lithium. The company is well on the way to the development of commercial extraction of lithium from naturally occurring hot springs deep below the surface of Cornwall. The question always asked is how will the lithium be extracted from the brines? There are several new technologies now available including ion-exchange, as reported a few days ago on MEI Online, and Cornish Lithium plan to make use of such innovative methods.
At the May sundowner our thoughts were with one of the great Camborne School of Mines characters, Ron Hooper, who had died the previous day. Today we toasted the memory of fellow nonagenarian John Shrimpton, who commenced his lecturing duties at CSM in 1955 and retired as head of mining in 1985. He was a colleague of mine for exactly half my time at CSM, a true gentleman who had served with distinction in the RAF in WW2. Below is a great photo, taken in 2009, of John with Ron Hooper and mineral processor Jim Turner, also no longer with us.
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| John Shrimpton (left) with Ron Hooper and Jim Turner |
The next Cornish Mining Sundowner will be held at the Royal Oak in Perranwell on Thursday 18th October.
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After recent feedback and discussion, it seems we need to have October's Cornwall Mining Sundowner in the Chainlocker at Falmouth, as concern has been mooted about the size of the Royal Oak (Perranwell) bar given numbers attending recently. So, October's will be in Falmouth and the Royal Oak will be planned later in the season as a venue.
ReplyDeleteApologies to those who were banking on Perranwell in October.
Nick Slade