Good news at the August Cornish Mining Sundowner

Falmouth has been jam-packed with visitors this week for the annual Festival Week. With its origins in a local sailing regatta dating back at least as far 1837, the Week has evolved into not only a major sailing competition in the south west but also an opportunity for tourists and locals to enjoy the many daytime and evening attractions in the town. Numbers were swelled even more last night with a great turnout for the August Mining Sundowner at the Chain Locker.

Veteran mineral processors Nick Wilshaw, BW, Mike Hallewell and Tony Clarke

and veteran mining engineers Nick Clarke, Tony Batchelor, Roger Davey and Phil Oliver

 

Many of the regulars are members of the Cornwall Mining Alliance (CMA). Cornwall is home to a unique concentration of innovative businesses, organisations and experienced professionals providing services to all aspects of mining and related industries in the UK and around the world. The CMA connects these experts so MEI is very pleased to announce a partnership with CMA, which becomes an Industry Associate for MEI's Falmouth-based conferences, starting with next year's Sustainable Minerals '20 and Biomining '20, which will be held just across the inner harbour from the Chain Locker, at the National Maritime Museum.

Camborne School of Mines' Prof. Frances Wall had good news of the IMP@CT (mining and energy) team at the University of Exeter, which is a finalist for a Europe-wide competition for women-led innovation. The IMP@CT team is led by geologist Kathryn Moore, Senior Lecturer in Critical and Green Technology Metals. Together the team seeks to develop sustainable whole systems mining solutions for production of an increasing diversity of technology metals. It is great to have a minerals processing project featured, and even better that it is a CSM-led project! The winner will be decided by public vote via the website link, which also gives full details of the project, which we hope will be featured next year at Sustainable Minerals '20 in Falmouth.

Frances Wall and Kathryn Moore, with CSM's Pat Foster

It was good to catch up with Ben Williamson again. Ben is an Associate Professor in Applied Mineralogy at CSM and has just written a fine article on the action which is needed to raise the profile of mining education. He feels, as I do, that far more needs to be done by the government, industry and education sector to highlight the vital role of mining in modern society, the excellent career opportunities, the considerable investments made by mining companies to be more environmentally and ethically responsible, and the importance of the mining sector to the UK economy.

Ben Williamson (centre) with CSM Association manager Chris Kitchen and CMA's Jean Taylor

As he stresses in his article, mining makes an enormous contribution to the UK economy and will continue to do so long into the future.  From a career perspective, it is reassuring, given current university tuition fees, that mining engineering graduates have exciting and well-paid employment opportunities world-wide. Despite these positives, the University of Exeter’s CSM is now the UK’s only provider of Mining Engineering degrees at undergraduate level at a time when the mining industry is becoming increasingly technology-driven and reliant on a highly-skilled workforce.

Ben is keen to have this article published in a major newspaper education supplement, but so far has had no response. Unfortunately he is probably experiencing the classic freelance writer's Catch-22 situation, where a publisher will only accept articles from well established writers. So if anyone has any contacts in the publication network who might be able to help, please let us know.

It was a great sundowner last night and as always we welcome anyone who is in the area to call in for a chat. The next sundowner will be at the Chain Locker again on September 19th, beginning at the usual time of 5.30pm.

Twitter @barrywills