Cornwall's King Edward Mine provided a perfect setting for the 40th International Mining Games

The annual International Mining Games sees teams from Mining Schools around the world (including USA, Brazil, Australia and Europe) compete in 7 events of traditional mining methods in order to commemorate those who have lost their lives in industry and preserve techniques for years to come. The competition was started in 1978 in honour of the 91 miners who died in the Sunshine Mine disaster in Idaho, USA.

Each year the competition is hosted by a different Mining School across the world, and this year, over the Easter weekend, it was hosted by the Camborne School of Mines (CSM). In 2012 CSM hosted the event for the first time outside USA or Australia (posting of 2nd April 2012).

Teams from Western Australian School of Mines (top) and CSM (below) compete
in the Swede Saw, sawing through 5 sections of timber using a bow saw

Although keenly contested, the games are not just about competition, however. They also provide an opportunity for young people to network and provide a scouting opportunity for mining companies looking for new recruits.

Members of the Montana Tech team

There could not have been a better setting for the Games than the King Edward Mine in the heart of the Great Flat Lode, a massive deposit of tin which was intensively worked in the 19th and 20th centuries. Often referred to as the 'birthplace of modern mining' the landscape is dotted with ruined engine houses, the legacy of a bygone era.

King Edward Mine, known to generations of students as KEM, was for over a century CSM's field station for practical mining and surveying. The mine was formerly part of South Condurrow Mine, which was abandoned in 1896. The old CSM mineral processing laboratories were a few decades ago converted into one of the world's finest historical museums, one of the few, if any, places in the world where 19th and early 20th century gravity concentrators, such as round frames, buddles, Frue Vanners and rag frames, can be seen in operation. It was great to see that during the Games free access to the museum was available to the public.

Shaking table, KEM

The only operating rag frames in existence

Bal maidens by the rag frames at Wheal Grenville, adjacent to KEM, c1900

The ruined engine houses of Wheal Grenville

Congratulations to the winners of the 2018 Games:

Men: Camborne SOM;  Women: Missouri University of Science & Technology; Mixed: South Dakota SOM; Alumni: Western Australian SOM
Twitter @barrywills

Exciting new copper discovery in Cornwall

Copper has a bewildering range of ore minerals, and soon we may add a new mineral to the list.

Geologists at Cornwall's Bodmin Institute discovered the magnificent specimen below while exploring the abandoned 19th century Wheal Snipe copper mine near Bodmin.

The specimen appears to be a form of psuedo malachite but its exact composition has not as yet been ascertained. It is also not known to what extent this mineral occurs in the workings.

As with all new mineral finds, naming the mineral is one of the priorities. It has been suggested that it be named after the Director of the Institute, Dr. Richard Head, which would be appropriate, but the geologists are open to suggestions, so maybe blog readers can assist?

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Women in mining: CSM Annual Dinner highlights how times have changed
A lone woman in theoretical physics

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A lone woman in theoretical physics

Only two days ago I reported on the CSM Annual Dinner, and how times have changed regarding women in mining. Today I found the wonderful photo below on Twitter. It is a beautifully restored and colourised photo by Marina Amaral (Twitter @marinamaral2) and she calls it "the most intelligent picture ever taken".

 

It shows participants at the 5th Solvay Conference on Quantum Mechanics in 1927, at which 17 of the attendees were, or became, Nobel Prize winners. What is notable is that there was only one woman at the conference, Marie S. Curie. As I said on Sunday, times have certainly changed.

Marina has also listed the people in the photo, a listing which absolutely oozes with eminence!

Back row: Auguste Piccard, Émile Henriot, Paul Ehrenfest, Édouard Herzen, Théophile de Donder, Erwin Schrödinger, Jules-Émile Verschaffelt, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, Ralph Howard Fowler, Léon Brillouin

Middle Row: Peter Debye, Martin Knudsen, William Lawrence Bragg, Hendrik Anthony Kramers, Paul Dirac, Arthur Compton, Louis de Broglie, Max Born, Niels Bohr

Seated front: Irving Langmuir, Max Planck, Marie Skłodowska Curie, Hendrik Lorentz, Albert Einstein, Paul Langevin, Charles Eugène Guye, Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Owen Willans Richardson

Amazing photo: thanks Marina.

New book: Success and Failure in the Canadian Metallurgical Industry

Canada is a world leader in the metallurgical industry, and at Flotation '19, Jan Nessett will highlight in his keynote lecture the important contributions to flotation that have come from Canadians.

Many metallurgical processes were invented or developed in Canada, and a new book Success and Failure in the Canadian Metallurgical Industry describes this industry by a metallurgist who witnessed most of these events. Fathi Habashi, Emeritus Professor at Laval University, describes briefly the Geological Survey of Canada, the Mines Branch, the engineering firms, iron and steel industry, the aluminum industry, and many others. The e-book is published by Métallurgie Extractive Québec and distributed by Laval University Bookstore Zone (E-mail: conseiller@zone.coop)

Women in Mining: CSM Annual Dinner highlights how times have changed

There were relatively few alumni at last night's Camborne School of Mines (CSM) Annual Dinner in Falmouth. Attendance was dominated by current students, and as Head of School Kip Jeffrey reported there are now many more students on post-graduate MSc courses than there are on undergraduate courses, the gulf likely to increase next year with the introduction of the new MSc in Mineral Processing.

What was really good to see was the number of young women now pursuing careers in the mining industry, something unheard of when I began my 22 years at CSM in 1974:

CSM was established in 1888 and for its first 93 years its academic staff and students were all male:

CSM Final Year Dinner, 1977

CSM 1st Mineral Processing Technology graduates, 1979

CSM Mineral Processing Technology Final Year Dinner, 1983

In 1981 local girl Julie Holl caused quite a stir when she enrolled on the degree course in Mineral Processing Technology, graduating with a first class honours degree in 1984. Gaynor Yorath joined a year after Julie, and is now on the staff of the University of Cape Town. Thereafter the number of female students began to grow, but it was several years before the first female member of staff, and it would have been hard to imagine that there would one day be a female Director, as there was when Prof Frances Wall took up her duties in 2008 (Frances will be a keynote speaker at Process Mineralogy '18 in Cape Town). And who would have wagered on a young woman becoming President of the Student Union, as did Madeleine Hinton in 2012?

Madeleine Hinton and Frances Wall, with current President Alex Perry

Last night there was another bit of history, when 1995 graduate Emma Priestley, CEO of Goldstone Resources plc, became the first woman to be invited as the Guest Speaker at an Annual Dinner.

With Kip Jeffrey and Emma Priestley

Times have indeed changed, and so much for the better.

And if anyone knows the whereabouts of Julie Holl, please let me know as I would love to get in touch.

Twitter @barrywills