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Archive for the ‘Africa’ Category

The Mining Week in Review

Posted in About the news, Africa, California, Global Warming, Gold, Mining history, tagged , , , , on March 5, 2010 | 1 Comment »

  
As the week winds down, here are some of the more way-out postings I have encountered this week on the subject of mining:

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No Mines in the South African Wine Farms

Posted in Africa, Human relations and mining, Law (Mining), environmental, racilism, tagged , , on March 3, 2010 | 1 Comment »

   Normally a report about miners being unwelcome is full of sad tales of aboriginals who protest the disturbance of the forests and sacred vales.   Normally one feels a passing sadness and empathy for the primitive peoples about to be yanked into the new century, and deprived of a supposedly idyllic, albeit primitive lifestyle. 

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Democracy, Family, Money and the “Pernicious” Influence of Mining

Posted in Africa, Church, First Nations, Human relations and mining, Jobs and Salaries, Law (Mining), Mining history, racilism, tagged , , , , , on February 25, 2010 | 1 Comment »

  
A Social License to Mine does not imply social peace.  There appears to be much confusion on these two concepts –  see this link which states:
We are not opposed to mining itself, but to its consequences, starting with the social conflicts that have left our families divided,” Maudilia Cardona, a local leader in the municipality of San [...]

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Final perspectives on South Africa and mining

Posted in Africa, Investing & Finance, racilism, tagged , , on February 14, 2010 | 1 Comment »

I have just spent the past two weeks travelling around South Africa and talking to its mining people.  This is obviously not the country I last visited nineteen years ago.  Today there are friendly people providing services at every shop and kiosk.  There is a happy mix of people in every office I entered and [...]

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This is South Africa and mining

Posted in Africa, Investing & Finance, Mining history, mining, racilism, tagged , , , , on February 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

   The past week has been spent in Illovo, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa (at least I think that is the correct string of names to pinpoint the location.)    Yesterday I returned to Westdene where, in 1973, I bought a house for R10,000, sold in 1979 for R45,000, and which today is worth R1.3 million–the impact of inflation [...]

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Julius Malema pushes nationalization of South African mines

Posted in About the news, Africa, Investing & Finance, People, racilism, tagged , , , on February 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Today’s report on the battle to nationalize South Africa’s mine states in part:
De Beers, which mines diamonds in Botswana and Namibia in partnership with the governments of those countries, “seems to be refusing that the people of South Africa benefit from mining of diamonds,” the ANC Youth League said in a statement yesterday.

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Nationalize South Africa’s mines demand the young

Posted in About the news, Africa, Investing & Finance, Law (Mining), racilism, tagged , , , , on February 3, 2010 | 1 Comment »

The headline in the Star, a venerable old Johannesburg newspaper, is about the fight between the Minister of Mines who says “No nationalization in my lifetime,” and the young bucks calling her a liar and accusing her of telling them one thing in private and another in public. 

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New book on mine tailings by Geoff Blight: a new must-read

Posted in Africa, People, Tailings, tagged , , , , on February 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

I am in South Africa and in the offices of a large consulting company.  They and the consulting community is abuzz with excitement and pride at the recent publication of a new book of tailings impoundment by Geoffrey Blight.  The book is Geotechnical Engineering for Mine Waste Storage Facilities.  It is readily available from Amazon [...]

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Prof Jennings: he who taught me mining geotechnics

Posted in Africa, People, racilism, tagged , , on January 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

 A week today, I fly to South Africa.  Last time I was there was nearly twenty years ago.  Here is something I once wrote and never “published” or posted.  It is part of a tribute to Professor J.E. Jennings who taught me soil mechanics and introduced me to mining.   He also instilled in me a [...]

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Sustainable mining in Sierra Leone

Posted in Africa, Human relations and mining, People, tagged , , , on January 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

   Part of the pleasure of the holidays is the chance to read uninterrupted.  I have already gotten through a few long-neglected mystery novels littered with blood-bespattered corpses.  I skimmed one of those my-view-of-the-universe books of no particular merit.  Then there was a glance at the two-volume set of cook books by Julia Childs that my [...]

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