March summary: reflections on Denver, the CSM Annual Dinner and panto time

On the 1st of the month I left Denver for London, after a very successful SME Annual Meeting at the Colorado Convention Centre.  Denver had always been my favourite American downtown and this was my 10th visit, so I'm very familiar with it, but after a gap of four years since SME '2019, I was shocked to see how Denver has changed post-Covid. The pandemic obviously hit it hard economically and the once pristine 16th Street Mall is looking tired with many of the familiar restaurants, including the iconic Paramount Cafe, which we have frequented regularly, now permanently closed.

With Camborne School of Mines colleagues at the Paramount Cafe in 1991

And although this was my 20th attendance at an Annual SME Meeting, this was the first at which the SME felt it necessary to email all delegates to warn of the dangers of walking alone at night. How times change!

Back home preparations were well under way for MEI's four conferences this year, with Comminution '23 now only a couple of weeks away, and around 200 delegates already registered.

The programmes for the June conferences in Falmouth, Biomining '23 and Sustainable Minerals '23 are now published and there is a final call for abstracts for Flotation '23 in November.

It was good to be back at Falmouth's Chain Locker on the 16th for the Cornish Mining Sundowner, and there was good news of tin and lithium mining in the county.  Not such good news, however, from Cornwall's proposed space port at Newquay. In January the much anticipated  inaugural orbital space launch from the UK ended in failure. Virgin Orbit's jumbo jet, Cosmic Girl, took off from Cornwall’s Newquay airport with  the LauncherOne rocket attached beneath its wing. The rocket appeared to be ascending correctly but then suffered an "anomaly" and the rocket and  the satellites it was carrying were lost, but the carrier jumbo jet returned safely to base. 

It was hoped that further launches  would be attempted but last month Virgin Orbit paused operations in an apparent attempt to shore up its finances and almost all employees at the satellite launch company were furloughed. Spaceport Cornwall said, however, that it is working with other space flight firms and Cornwall Council, which owns the Spaceport, said its "focus" was to "continue to grow".

Two days after the sundowner over 250 current and past students and staff of Camborne School of Mines were at the Falmouth Hotel for the Annual CSM Association dinner, always a good opportunity to catch up with old friends from around the world.

Barbara with 1977 alumnus Kwabena Kwakwa and his wife Marie

Two distinguished alumni, Jeremy Wrathall and Nick Wilshaw,
CEO's of Cornish Lithium and Grinding Solutions Ltd (gsl)

The new Director of CSM, Pat Foster, gave an excellent overview of the current status of the school and the visions for the future.  It is certainly a very different CSM from the one that I left 27 years ago, most notably the number of young women studying and graduating in mining engineering and geology. When I began my 22 years at CSM in 1974 there were no women, and never had been any women at CSM, apart from secretarial staff. The first female student, Julie Holl, came to CSM via a local comprehensive school and graduated in mineral processing with a first class degree three years later, before continuing to PhD. Julie opened the floodgates to female students but back then we could never have envisaged that within a couple of decades there would be a female head of school, a position held by Frances Wall, currently Professor of Applied Mineralogy, who was head of CSM from 2008-2014.

Laura Tyler, Chief Technical Officer at BHP, Adelaide was only the second woman to be guest speaker at a CSMA dinner, and what an inspirational speech it was, urging the young people in the audience to follow their dreams and to grasp any opportunities that arrive.  After leaving CSM in 1991 with an MSc in Mining Engineering Laura has had a glittering international career, working across operations spanning civil engineering, open pit mining and underground mining, with world class mining companies, including Western Mining Corporation, Newcrest Mining, Mount Isa Mines and BHP in various technical and operational roles. She joined BHP in 2004, where she served in operational and technical roles at Ekati Diamond Mine in Canada, Asset President of the Cannington Mine in Queensland and Asset President of Olympic Dam in South Australia. She also has significant executive experience having worked as Chief of Staff to the previous CEO and now in her role as Chief Technical Officer.

With Laura and Pat

And a very different social event a week later, the Mabe village pantomime, back after 3 years due to the pandemic. Amanda plays a big part in village life, and as in previous years, was a star in this year's panto, The Emperor of Mabe's  New Clothes.

@barrywills