The Campo Del Cielo meteorite. Life’s little rituals are important. I have one that takes place every March and is something I look forward to in these troubled times we live in. It doesn’t involve weird clothes, funny handshakes or rubber wear but it does involve rocks, money and the Grenville Minerals booth in the trade show at the PDAC conference in Toronto. Over the last 20 years, I’ve become a regular Grenville customer, saving my pennies to buy a couple of new samples for my collection when PDAC comes around. They’re my first port of call on the conference Sunday when the grumpy security ..read more

The Puna Eruption The last thing most people would put on their Xmas list is “Dear Santa, please could I have an active volcano in my back yard”. For sure there’d be advantages: A built in BBQ that could handle pretty much any size of steak, and I wouldn’t have to pick up after my dog’s back-end eruptions (the last big clean up, which thankfully my wife did, clocked in at 29 “deposits”). Aside from that and the free orange light show, it’s hard to see any real benefits to rivers of lava squashing the Hydrangeas. During the eruption So, spare a thought for Melissa who lives in the Leilani Estat ..read more

A Surfeit of Sulphides I was fondling my rocks the other night -something I do often- gently touching them, stroking each one, talking to them like the fine old friends they are. My collection is growing, so mid Covid I bought some rickety, white Ikea Billy shelving to show off the best pieces in my home office, where nobody can see them but me. Mid-caress, my eyes were drawn to the 3 sulphide specimens perched on the top shelf which has begun to sag worryingly under the weight of sexy, coloured rocks. Billy is groaning. They’re 3 of my favourite samples: very different visually but closely re ..read more

i·so·la·tion /ˌīsəˈlāSHən/ noun: 1. “the isolation of geologists” We’re Lonely Bastards Every geologist has experienced extreme isolation at some point; a moment when they realise that if anything bad happens to them right then and there, they’re screwed. They may as well be on Mars because no help is coming. For most geos, isolation is a regular Saturday night thing when our one “friend” -the one that stills listens to our no-please-not-again hilarious field stories -is unexpectedly busy taking care of their incontinent senile aunt. Would you believe it? I’d love to meet up, but I have to cha ..read more

How to screw up a presentation. Stuck to a stained, gray padded seat in the speaking hall at yet another retail investment conference, the guy in front of you is falling asleep as the presentation on the main stage goes totally off the rails. It goes so badly wrong, dragging on for minute after endless tooth-achey minute, that you’re praying for lightning to strike and end the speaker’s misery. The irony is, the speaker kicked off by telling you that they’re going to present a very brief overview of what their company is up to -you know, just the highlights…the steaky sizzle… A stained chair ..read more

A scattering of ashes. Ilkley Moor is a small, windy, heather-covered hill in Yorkshire in northern England. It’s due north of the old textile city of Bradford, in the heartland of the coal-fired industrial revolution. At just over 400m high, the moor is home to grouse, sheep, bilberries and hordes of local tourists who jam the small car parks up by the Cow and Calf pub near the top. It’s been occupied for thousands of years -the hill, not the pub- and is dotted with Stone and Iron Age sites including an ancient Neolithic swastika carved into a rock on top of the moor. And don’t forget the Twe ..read more

*the new official spelling of the country’s name. High up in the mountains of northeast Türkiye -up where the borders of Georgia, Türkiye and Armenia meet- the terrane is alpine and rugged. The spectacular scenery is underlain by highly prospective volcanic rocks; the tell-tale rusty signs of possible sulphide mineralization scattered all over.   The first time I went up there I was with 2 other geologists; a pleasant, easy going Turkish chappy who I’ll call Ahmed, and an annoying German one who I’ll call Harald. Harald had strong opinions about bloody everything and wasn’t shy to share t ..read more

Pt 2 was originally written for my friends at the Northern Miner hence it’s not as sweary as my usual pieces. Which is a pity. Strolling around PDAC in March, I ended up in the core shack, perusing all of the world class, upper quartile tier 1 discoveries guaranteed to become a mine one day. Tucked away at one end was Barrick’s giant Reko Diq porphyry project in western Pakistan. The photos of the parched Baluchistan desert took me back to 1997 when I spent a couple of months there, prospecting for similar systems along the Afghan border. A year later in 1998, I was involved in planning the se ..read more

Apologies for the picture quality in this piece. I can’t get the old school photos out of the old photo album -they’re stuck down firm after 40 years under a sticky plastic film, so I had to take pictures of 40 year old photos. Reputation: Sheep are stupid, defenceless and harmless creatures that mope about on hillsides doing not very much. They are good for two things: being eaten and producing wool. Sheep. I like them but I also think they are complete idiots. I like them because a) they’re tasty when they’re young and lamby, and b) they’ve kept me amused through many long field days, p ..read more

Turkey (*now known officially as Türkiye) -a country I know fairly well and have always loved visiting- has been on my mind recently for both good and sad reasons. I’d just finished this piece when word broke about the terrible earthquake in southeast Turkey and the awful loss of life it caused. If you can, please donate to the relief effort via the Red Cross here. And thanks to my “abi” Dave C. for the photos in this piece. For the life of me I have no idea where my photos of Turkey have gone and it’s pissing me off. Slogging up a steep forested path in northern Türkiye, I was focused on the ..read more