A Blogging Community for Miners and Commodity Traders

Youth, age, the tailend of it all, and Syncrude oil sands mining for glory

   
How wonderful it would be to be young again.  So full of energy, ignorance, folly, and certainty.   To be again that arrogant, opinionated, save-the-world hero.  To go boldly where none have gone before; and to brave the elements for the joy of existence.  To protest at Syncrude and try to stop the world in [...]

America Must Not Become a Resource Hostage

I was recently interviewed by Bob Lenzner for his program “Street Talk” on Forbes.com. During the interview, we discuss the seasonality of gold, infrastructure in emerging markets and how the price of oil has affected the market for uranium.

A cheat-sheet to prepare for Tailings and Mine Waste ?08 ? Vail in the fall and dreams of somnolence

The only good reason to go to a conference is to catch up on lost snoozing and delayed naps.  I confess that no matter the time of day, as soon as the lights dim in a conference room, my eyes shut and I lapse into blissful somnolence.
I am convinced that I do not sleep too deeply [...]

Global Mining Support seeks north American partners

In a conference center in Edmonton that spills down the hill I met Cobus Viljoen.  His accent was that of my grandmother and her Dutch South African ancestors.  So now i return the favor.
Cobus runs a company called Global Mining Support Group , or GMS for short.   Basically they arrange to buy things for mines and [...]

Generic in situ uranium mining heads for groundwater ridicule and the courts

           
Critics of mining harp on two impacts: 

Forest or farm land turned to open pit, waste dump, or tallings pile; and/or
Surface and groundwater impacted by increased constituent flow from the mine.

Both are real issues.  Trying to avoid these impacts, legislator and miners have resorted to backfilling pits, backfilling underground mine workings, turning the tailings [...]

McCain on mining and Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste

You have to hand itto McCain.  I hope the superciliousness of this news report is not a reflection of the profundity of his assessment of mining:
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain says the nation’s 136-year-old mining law needs to be updated, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he supports increasing fees paid by mining companies operating on public [...]