Spent today working as a hard-working consultant to the oil sands mining industry. The industry is always short of qualified staff. And the jobs are demanding and well-paid. The challenges are immense as the issues are new, unique, and fun to address. As I cannot write about what is did and what I do (I have signed a confidentiality agreement), here is a job description from a headhunters who tried to recruit me recently and who and been told by some silent admirer that I could do the job. I do not know if the job is taken, but if you are interested, call around. (more…)
Archive for April, 2011
Calgary Mining Jobs in Oil Sands in Fort McMurray
Posted in consulting, Jobs and Salaries, North America, Oil sands, tagged calgary, job, Oil sands on April 29, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Acid Mine Drainage threatens Kwa Thema, South Africa. Is this really worse than Global Warming?
Posted in acid mine drainage, Africa, environmental, Global Warming, Gold, Reclamation, Tailings, Underground, Uranium, tagged AMD, East Geduld, Kwa thema, pollution, slimes dam, Tailings, Witwatersrand on April 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Growing up on the East Geduld Mine, a gold mine at the far east end of the South African Witwatersrand, we often went to play around the slimes dams and the pools of orange, green, and blue waters that dotted the landscape. Our parent forbade us to go there, for there were stories of kids sliding into pools, drowning, or worse, being entombed in collapsing caverns in the slimes dams. But that made our adventures all the more exciting. (more…)
Rick Call of Call & Nicholas: The Probability of Mine Slope Failure.
Posted in British Columbia, Coal, consulting, Mining history, People, tagged andy robertson, call & nicholas, dave nicholas, failure probability, ned larson, Open Pit, rick call, slope, srk, steffen robertson and kirsten on April 27, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Rummaging around in old papers this past week, I came across the yellowing paper of a type-writer-typed paper from 1982. I think I went to Edmonton to present the paper at the 4th Open Pit Operators Conference. I vaguely recall a small city perched on the edge of a river—not at all like the city now that it has spread across vast swaths of open country that was once field and nature. (more…)
Wismut uranium mining reclamation conference in May
Posted in environmental, Europe, Mining history, Tailings, Uranium, tagged chemnitz, Tailings, Uranium, Wismut on April 26, 2011 | 1 Comment »
In the last week of May, folk will gather at this conference: Remediation of Uranium Mining and Processing Sites – Sustainability and Long Term Aspects. This is the part of the story that I know: (more…)
Stabat Mater. Easter Celebrations.
Posted in Church, opera, tagged easter, stabat mater. rossini. pergolesi on April 26, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Obama is being criticized for not “sufficiently celebrating Easter.” With Easter Monday almost safely over, let me comment on his in-actions and my actions over Easter. (more…)
Steffen Robertson and Kirsten. The SRK of Mining.
Posted in Mining history, tagged kirsten, logo, orange, Robertson, srk, steffen on April 25, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Andy Robertson burst into the office to present his grand new company logo. That much I recall from the mid-1970s. He proudly explained that the two lines represented two soil or rock strata, and that the kind of inclined line represented a drill rig pushing into the strata, and the zig-zag of the strata represented the changes wrought to the strata by the expertise of Steffen Robertson and Kirsten. (more…)
Mining the Bible for Mining Meaning
Posted in British Columbia, Church, tagged bible, easter, job, meaning, mining on April 24, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Being Easter Sunday, it is appropriate to post a piece about religion. Here is an edited version of something I wrote many years ago along with all the comments the original piece elicited. (more…)
MET Opera Capriccio a Triumph of the Trivial and the Profound Prayer for Survival
Posted in opera, tagged capriccio, fleming, grandchildren, MET, opera, strauss on April 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Capriccio is the final opera by Richard Strauss. He wrote it during the Second World War. How, you ask, could he write this light piece during terrible times? (more…)
Why Dams Fail in Mining and Civil Projects
Posted in Asia, health and safety, Mining history, Tailings, tagged bakun dam, blondin, dam, quality control, sinhoydro, verwoerd on April 22, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Sometimes tailings dam fail because of the poor quality of the construction. Sometimes mine geowaste facilities fail because of poor design. On the basis of today’s events, I conclude that they may fail because of poor concepts, poor understanding of the theory, and plain simple incompetence. (more…)



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