A quiet November sundowner, and encouraging news of an undergraduate mining degree in UK

For the first time since February last year we were back indoors in the Chain Locker, Falmouth, last night for the monthly mining sundowner. I arrived at 5.30 pm to find Dr. Tony Batchelor, Chairman of Geoscience, sitting on his own. We were soon joined by Dean Eastbury, former Elsevier, and Minerals Engineering, Publications Manager, after which Nick and Flee Wilshaw, of Grinding Solutions, arrived with their newly recruited Operations & Commercial Manager, Dan Abraham, to swell the numbers to a cosy six!  Although Covid restrictions in bars and restaurants were removed 4 months ago many are still wary about meeting in pubs, considering that the Covid infection rate in Cornwall is still 468 in 100,000, slightly higher than the figure of 432 for England.

Dan, Flee, Tony, Dean, me and Nick

The sundowner was a week later than planned, as last week there was a Cornish Institute of Engineers lecture in Penryn, the 18th Annual Vic Philips Memorial Lecture, in memory of my old Camborne School of Mines friend and colleague.

Vic Phillips with CSM mineral processing students, 1984

Unfortunately I was unable to make it to the lecture "Mining is essential and the world needs to know about it" delivered by Tim Biggs, formerly Head of Mining at Deloitte, UK. The pre-lecture announcement covered basically the ground that I, and many others, have been saying for some time, that mining is essential and the sustainability agenda, and particularly the energy transition, makes mining even more essential.

Tim said that we need to change this. The industry needs the support and understanding of society so miners can most effectively get on with the task of developing and running mines and producing all the metals the world needs. Very true but it is not too easy to get the message across to the wider society. I have always felt that I am preaching to the converted on the blog, and the media is not too interested in the positive aspects of mining, while relishing its negative aspects.

The lecture also covered the need to ensure an accurate understanding of mining if we are to attract the next generation of mining professionals to this most essential of industries. This is also very true, but since the University of Exeter "paused" the mining degree at CSM (posting of 15 September 2020) there is now nowhere in the UK where a school leaver can study mining engineering.

But there is a glimmer of hope! Throughout this year an Industry Advisory Panel, which includes several CSM Association members, has been working alongside the University to develop a pioneering new Mining Engineering program at CSM.

The Degree Apprenticeship (DA) model represents an innovative new partnership between employers and universities. Apprentices will be employed throughout the programme, spending part of their time studying (through access to online material and attendance at residentials) and the rest working. On successful completion of the program candidates will be awarded a BEng (Hons) degree in Mining Engineering from the University of Exeter. The program will be aimed at both the UK mining sector and the international mining industry through a blended learning offering.

To industry the DA represents both a completely different early talent recruitment model, and a novel opportunity for existing employees to gain a degree-level qualification. A recent industry survey around the DA provided very encouraging results and CSM and University Staff have agreed to develop the course. The Industry Advisory Panel will continue working with the University to develop a cutting edge curriculum and it is hoped that this will be delivered in partnership with the mining industry in September of next year.

Hopefully we will have a better attendance at the popular Christmas sundowner at Tyacks Hotel, Camborne, from 5.30 pm on December 16th.

@barrywills