April summary

The month began with some sad news, of the death of a very well-liked and respected member of the Camborne School of Mines research team.  Tony Ball died on the first of the month and had spent over 28 years at CSM, from July 1977 until his retirement in December 2005.

His friend, the late Dr. Alan Bromley, head of geology at CSM and later the founder of Cornish Company Petrolab, recognised Tony's potential and employed him as a technician to prepare thin and polished sections. Totally self-taught he soon became a Senior Technician in charge of the scanning electron microscope where he produced some amazing results for many research projects. 

Tony with Amanda Wills in July 1989 when Amanda was on work-experience at CSM

When CSM was absorbed into the University of Exeter and moved to the new Tremough campus at Penryn, Tony was promoted to lead technician and continued with his main role with SEM and related instrumental analysis, including the newly installed QEM-SEM. Our sincere condolences to his wife Marge and family.

I unfortunately was unable to attend Tony's funeral in Camborne, as Barbara and I were cruising the Iberian coast, the highlight in the first week being Cádiz, and Casablanca in the second week the most disappointing port of call.

Cádiz

We also missed the April Cornish Mining Sundowner, on a sunny evening at Falmouth's Chain Locker. I thank CSM Association Secretary Carol Richards for the photo below. There are many new faces who I do not recognise, including 13 students on the first year CSM Degree Apprenticeship in Mining Engineering, who were visiting CSM for two weeks for their first residential course of the programme.