On Saturday I posted a piece on the Pebble Mine. Here is one of the comments on what I wrote—the commenter takes me to task for consulting to the EKATI Diamond mine, while questioning the need for and the practicality of opening the Pebble Mine. First the comment and then my reply, which is an extended essay on the morality & ethics of diamond mining.
You question whether a gold mine is needed everywhere. So let’s ask whether a diamond mine is needed everywhere simply to put glitter on a woman’s finger. Probably not one could argue, but I see you do consulting work for Ekati so I guess a diamond mine in the pristene north is really OK. So maybe the argument can be simplified down to whether a person can get some personal economic benefit from the venture (diamonds -yes, Pebble – no). Stand by your morals and refuse to support the glitterati, stop consulting to the diamonds industry. There is no proof their tailings will still be stable 1000 years from now.
The simplest answer to the contradiction of working for mines and questioning the need for the Pebble Mine is this: if good men do not act, bad men will.
A complete and more complex answer is contained in the book by Edward O. Wilson called The Social Conquest of Earth. Very briefly, Wilson’s thesis is that we are the product of two evolutionary forces. The first is individual selection that is the basis of all acts of self-benefit, including greed, accumulation of wealth, kids first, and probably sin in general. The second is group selection. Thus group selection is the basis of altruism, honesty, cooperation, and of course tribalism.
One could say that individual selection is the basis of the work I do, and group selection is the basis of this blog and my negative comments about the Pebble Mine.
I have often written that my three grandfathers (one a step-grandfather, but the nicest of them) were all miners. My father was a miner. I grew up on a mine and was educated on a mining-house (now BHP) scholarship. I believe in mining; I have benefitted from mining; my kids have been and still are been educated on mining-derived income. I know others can and should get the same opportunities as I have received from mining.
And because of this deep personal involvement in mining, I know mines can and do impact the environment. I know mines done well can benefit people. I know mines done badly or done in the wrong place can devastate places & people.
I designed and oversaw construction of the Cannon Mine tailings impoundment just above Wenatchee. I know you can build high and large tailings facilities close to towns to no detriment. Go look at the Cannon Mine website or go visit the mine if you doubt me.
I managed the engineering of the UMTRA Program for five years. We closed twenty-four inactive uranium mill tailings piles in ten states in accordance with Federal regulations that set a design life of 1,000 years. I know how to close tailings impoundment to minimal societal and environmental impact.
The first tailings impoundment I designed was for the De Beers Kimberly mine. I went on to diamond mines in Botswana. I was probably the first engineer of the Jwaneng mine tailings. And now I am proud to consult to BHP on the EKATI diamond mine tailings. What we have done and are doing is no secret. We published a paper on our work in the Tailings and Mine Waste 2011 conference last year.
Hence I know the EKATI tailings facility, on closure, will be but another terraform in the environment and respond as any other, many other, geomorphic expressions in the landscape. Go visit, or read my paper, if you doubt me.
My ex-wife was the granddaughter of a diamond buyer. She inherited many big stones. I could not, on a mining salary, afford to insure them. In the good days, she gave me a magnificent men’s ring with a large yellow Australian diamond in the middle. I sometimes wear it when I go courting; although it tends to scare the average Vancouver widow and divorcee. Too big, I am afraid.
Thus I know just how vain and useless is a big diamond—-although they are incredible beautiful. What can I say, but that a big diamond is part of individual evolutionary selection. It has nothing to do with group selection and altruism.
Of course we do not need diamonds. Sea-shells would suffice if sufficiently rare, beautiful, and expensive. But try convince a woman of that.
We do not need gold, except for my computer and false teeth. But convince a Republican of that.
Finally there is a single fact that distinguishes my consulting on tailings for mines and blogging about Pebble Mine. Nobody pays me to blog. Nobody pays me to opine about the Pebble Mine. The mine is still but a dream in Anglo’s flight from South Africa. Bristol Bay is a valuable resource. The issue is under consideration and the topic of intense debate. I know that I know as much about tailings as anybody talking, writing, or experting about Pebble’s tailings.
And thus in the late evening, after a hard day consulting on the best way to dispose of tailings, I believe that I am entitled to say what I think about things that affect the well-being of the tribe—group selection at its best.
Jack I am disappointed that you are not against mining in pristine environments but you can accept it as long as you personally are the tailings designer. Now given your negative critique of the Pebble concept, and I think the responsible tailings consulting firm may be Golders or Knight-Piesold, should we not critically examine other projects these firms have worked on if they don’t have capability for complex and safe designs?
While we can’t count on you to support no mining hopefully we can count on you to identify allegedly incompetent consultants for us as you have done here. Let us know when you see more of this elsewhere.
An examination of the success of various consulting companies in coming up with the right design would yield variable results. As I have written in this blog, I have designed tailings facilties that have failed. I am not the only consultant with this record.
I know that all professionals can succceed and all professionals can fail. Look at lawyers in court. On average, they succeed only half the time. Yet they are competent and are doing what their professional ethics demand, namely representing the best interests of their clients in an adverserial system.
So too in designing tailings facilities: as a consultant you are engaged and paid to represent the best interests of your client in an adverserial system. That is perfectly professional and considered to be in the best interests of society. You do your best in accordance with practice and knowledge of the time.
We all know and it is no secret that times change, knowledge increases, and standards of practice improve over time. I have written papers on this and you can find them on the InfoMine Library.
One of my teachers when I was doing my masters was a full-time engineer with the predecessor firm to Knight Piesold. He was a great and talented engineer. Yet one day, a structure he had designed failed. It is a long story, but he went on to greater designs and professional success as did the company.
It is not the record of failure and success of the company that counts. It is the vigour of the system, the honesty of the open debate in an adversarial system that counts.
So let us not supress debate on the Pebble Mine. Let us rather join and contribute to the debate. As in all politics, the compromise and the truth will out of open debate and consideration of opposing views.
Mining in pristine environments? I find that to be a truly ridiculous comment. One certainly can’t start a mine up in the concrete jungle because that’s where all of the stuff that we mine ends being used and thrown away by the mass of stupid people that consume endlessly and yet don’t think we should be mining where we haven’t paved yet.
Jack, I applaud the fact that you believe that the Pebble project is too risky and are willing to blog about it even though you are a professional and sometimes it is difficult and risky to criticize other professionals. Some projects are just not worth the risk and perhaps Pebble is in this category.