Read or Listen now | There are just three ways to create real new wealth. You make stuff, you grow stuff or your mine stuff. Everything else is just redistribution. But pollution, waste, environmental ruin, injury and death. Who would work in mining? Your Sunday morning thought piece
Jan 29, 2023·edited Jan 30, 2023Liked by Dominic Frisby
Great article Mr Frisby. Same thing happening here in Australia. The number of geology and mining engineer graduates has been declining. I graduated as a geologist in the late 90s [I'm a woman (as per the definition a decade ago) and there were quite a few of us in my year] and given the sector’s highly cyclical nature, I’ve had to find work elsewhere during the not-boom-times, sometimes geologists don’t come back, so there’s attrition there, also.
Having grown up in a remote, regional mining/manufacturing town, I understand the importance of mining and agriculture (as you’ve highlighted) and how we’ve been dependent on both for thousands of years. Most people, including politicians, don’t know this and don’t know how things work.
It’s almost impossible to get a project approved in Australia now, despite having the gold standard when it comes to regulations (it’s actually over the top). In Queensland recently, an unelected, activist judge declared that legislative processes (in this case, an expensive, drawn-out EIS approvals process) and the decision made by the minister and departmental delegates to approve a coal mine, breached human rights based on some contested, vague, debatable, rights-related issue. The coal was going to be exported to SE Asia. What about the right to reliable energy and a higher standard of living, education etc.? It's nuts. And along with our Treasurer's new "Chalmers Manifesto", things are about to get worse: "where markets are built in partnership with business and unions to allocate capital and labour" doesn’t sound like "better capitalism" to me, it sounds like fascism.
Fascinating stuff. I do struggle with the fact that people are so ignorant of the cost (in the broadest sense) of batteries and windmills. The emissions are front-loaded, we don’t see them the same way we see a car exhaust. It doesn’t mean they’re not there. But people listening to this are grown up enough to appreciate this. I just feel most people really can’t wrap their heads around it.
Really thought-provking article; thanks! I'd never given mining any attention at all - and evidently I'm not alone in this. Have shared as far I can reach.
You make good points but I'm afraid there's a price we have to pay for continuously electing to let the incompetent to rule us.
First came women emancipation and ridiculing the men who put their lives in danger to put food on the table.
We then allowed various forms of degeneracy to take hold and climate doomsday religion is nothing but another manifestation of the degenerative ideology ripping apart this country.
I say this as someone who was not born in the UK but deeply loved and admired the historical grit that got this nation to the top. I have no relative who's ever worked in mining (I'm a millennial working in tech) but really do wish that this county took control of the things that really mattered. I am though hopeless as there can't be any debate on the ills in this country and have left the country.
South Africa (SA) needs another 20GW of power (currently has 32GW) which is either nuclear or its coal and shale gas to do what it needs to do (as a minimum, but achievable, under the right administrative leadership and capital allocator, IMHO).
Fuel here, in SA, costs GBP1/L (but in neighbouring countries like Botswana who SA sells fuel to is GBP30p/L. There is little evidence of significant environmental damage to the surrounding area of much of this shale deposit space.
It is sadly rich white champagne socialists in the local areas that do not wish their perfect (and exquisitely beautiful, it must be said) Wild Coast (which is one of the least developed places in the world (old Transkei, now the east and north-east Eastern Cape province) 'despoiled'. Note that the rich white champagne socialist makes up broadly <5% of the electorate that should be deciding these matters (at a local level) and maybe 10% of the SA electorate as a whole (national). Nobody asked the locals how they thought about everyone (or very close to everyone) aged 18-44 getting a job for a world-renowned energy miner/extractor that would lift an entire region from one of the least developed into potentially one of the most developed, bar perhaps the Western Cape and parts of Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu-Natal provinces. in Africa if not the World.
It is treasonous – insanely corrupt! - that capital held by such a significantly minority proportion of our nation can trump the pragmatism of cheap and effective energy, including the complimentary ones of nuclear, solar, and wind, under our feet and below some of our coastline, creating the first African nation to join the G7 in a generation (25 years). SA has everything it needs to do what it needs to do to become the world player it was in the centuries of c 1700-1960s and decades of the late 1980s - 2008.
The ANC is busted and cannot afford to join any left-wing red-beret clad Breitling Socialists (EFF) as they together are very unlikely, at current polling, to get a 50% plus mandate. https://youtu.be/kgkOdf9Yd9k
We need power. Power creates jobs. It heats homes and runs vehicles. It moves goods. It allows the internet into every classroom/laboratory/office/factory/mine/home. It pulls people out of poverty and near poverty at exponential but lengthy rates and timeframes. A South Africa which has 52MW plus the cash to build nuclear is a country that begins quite quickly to match Germany, France, the UK and parts of the US at GBP per capita (measured in USD/GBP/EUR). This South Africa replaces Japan at the G7 within two short decades. SA needs to get off WEF, off Net Zero, off the World Bank and the IMF, and start producing the resources, powered in the near future by at least 52GW of power (add nuclear 20 year build - 72GW in total) - so as to sell excess energy to its neighbours in bigger volumes where possible, South America, and India - of the extraordinary linguistic, mineral, strategical, capable (current public sector, notwithstanding), intellectual, climatic, and geographic riches (never mind solar, wind, sea, road, perhaps cash for new rail) this land is endowed with.
It is my strongly held opinion that fossil fuel and only fossil fuel can create this new South Africa (under a new administration that is effective in defeating corruption) which would become a beacon (again) of old democracy which governs for the people and not the ruling class and ensures the children of our rainbow nation are exceptionally richer and more well-educated than their parents now.
Great article Mr Frisby. Same thing happening here in Australia. The number of geology and mining engineer graduates has been declining. I graduated as a geologist in the late 90s [I'm a woman (as per the definition a decade ago) and there were quite a few of us in my year] and given the sector’s highly cyclical nature, I’ve had to find work elsewhere during the not-boom-times, sometimes geologists don’t come back, so there’s attrition there, also.
Having grown up in a remote, regional mining/manufacturing town, I understand the importance of mining and agriculture (as you’ve highlighted) and how we’ve been dependent on both for thousands of years. Most people, including politicians, don’t know this and don’t know how things work.
It’s almost impossible to get a project approved in Australia now, despite having the gold standard when it comes to regulations (it’s actually over the top). In Queensland recently, an unelected, activist judge declared that legislative processes (in this case, an expensive, drawn-out EIS approvals process) and the decision made by the minister and departmental delegates to approve a coal mine, breached human rights based on some contested, vague, debatable, rights-related issue. The coal was going to be exported to SE Asia. What about the right to reliable energy and a higher standard of living, education etc.? It's nuts. And along with our Treasurer's new "Chalmers Manifesto", things are about to get worse: "where markets are built in partnership with business and unions to allocate capital and labour" doesn’t sound like "better capitalism" to me, it sounds like fascism.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-25/qld-court-waratah-coal-mine-youth-climate-activists-clive-palmer/101698906
Fascinating stuff. I do struggle with the fact that people are so ignorant of the cost (in the broadest sense) of batteries and windmills. The emissions are front-loaded, we don’t see them the same way we see a car exhaust. It doesn’t mean they’re not there. But people listening to this are grown up enough to appreciate this. I just feel most people really can’t wrap their heads around it.
Really thought-provking article; thanks! I'd never given mining any attention at all - and evidently I'm not alone in this. Have shared as far I can reach.
Have a good Sunday!
You make good points but I'm afraid there's a price we have to pay for continuously electing to let the incompetent to rule us.
First came women emancipation and ridiculing the men who put their lives in danger to put food on the table.
We then allowed various forms of degeneracy to take hold and climate doomsday religion is nothing but another manifestation of the degenerative ideology ripping apart this country.
I say this as someone who was not born in the UK but deeply loved and admired the historical grit that got this nation to the top. I have no relative who's ever worked in mining (I'm a millennial working in tech) but really do wish that this county took control of the things that really mattered. I am though hopeless as there can't be any debate on the ills in this country and have left the country.
It seems we’ve learnt nothing about supply chain dependency from covid to the Ukraine war. And by we, I mean those who make the decisions.
The UK has totally cucked itself with this net zero agenda. Totally emasculated. Lizard men are doing a good job of destroying the UK economy
Go woke, go broke. Another excellent piece, thanks Dominic.
Notes from a Republic:
South Africa (SA) needs another 20GW of power (currently has 32GW) which is either nuclear or its coal and shale gas to do what it needs to do (as a minimum, but achievable, under the right administrative leadership and capital allocator, IMHO).
SA sits on a vast amount of shale gas. https://www.velaw.com/shale-fracking-tracker/resources/south-africa/
Fuel here, in SA, costs GBP1/L (but in neighbouring countries like Botswana who SA sells fuel to is GBP30p/L. There is little evidence of significant environmental damage to the surrounding area of much of this shale deposit space.
It is sadly rich white champagne socialists in the local areas that do not wish their perfect (and exquisitely beautiful, it must be said) Wild Coast (which is one of the least developed places in the world (old Transkei, now the east and north-east Eastern Cape province) 'despoiled'. Note that the rich white champagne socialist makes up broadly <5% of the electorate that should be deciding these matters (at a local level) and maybe 10% of the SA electorate as a whole (national). Nobody asked the locals how they thought about everyone (or very close to everyone) aged 18-44 getting a job for a world-renowned energy miner/extractor that would lift an entire region from one of the least developed into potentially one of the most developed, bar perhaps the Western Cape and parts of Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu-Natal provinces. in Africa if not the World.
It is treasonous – insanely corrupt! - that capital held by such a significantly minority proportion of our nation can trump the pragmatism of cheap and effective energy, including the complimentary ones of nuclear, solar, and wind, under our feet and below some of our coastline, creating the first African nation to join the G7 in a generation (25 years). SA has everything it needs to do what it needs to do to become the world player it was in the centuries of c 1700-1960s and decades of the late 1980s - 2008.
The ANC is busted and cannot afford to join any left-wing red-beret clad Breitling Socialists (EFF) as they together are very unlikely, at current polling, to get a 50% plus mandate. https://youtu.be/kgkOdf9Yd9k
We need power. Power creates jobs. It heats homes and runs vehicles. It moves goods. It allows the internet into every classroom/laboratory/office/factory/mine/home. It pulls people out of poverty and near poverty at exponential but lengthy rates and timeframes. A South Africa which has 52MW plus the cash to build nuclear is a country that begins quite quickly to match Germany, France, the UK and parts of the US at GBP per capita (measured in USD/GBP/EUR). This South Africa replaces Japan at the G7 within two short decades. SA needs to get off WEF, off Net Zero, off the World Bank and the IMF, and start producing the resources, powered in the near future by at least 52GW of power (add nuclear 20 year build - 72GW in total) - so as to sell excess energy to its neighbours in bigger volumes where possible, South America, and India - of the extraordinary linguistic, mineral, strategical, capable (current public sector, notwithstanding), intellectual, climatic, and geographic riches (never mind solar, wind, sea, road, perhaps cash for new rail) this land is endowed with.
It is my strongly held opinion that fossil fuel and only fossil fuel can create this new South Africa (under a new administration that is effective in defeating corruption) which would become a beacon (again) of old democracy which governs for the people and not the ruling class and ensures the children of our rainbow nation are exceptionally richer and more well-educated than their parents now.
End.