The early 90s marked one of the biggest staking rushes in Northwest Territories in northern Canada. A hundred years earlier, people had come pouring into the Canadian north looking for gold. This time around, they were looking for something else... diamonds. At the centre of this new rush was Chuck Fipke and Dia Met Minerals. On this episode of Exploration Radio, let's find out more about Chuck Fipke and his lifelong desire to be an explorer.

Eira Thomas started her career as an exploration geologist when she was part of the team that discovered what became the Diavik Diamond mine, Canada's second major diamond discovery and arguably one of the richest diamond mines in the world. In this episode, we continue our discussion with Eira. We find out what she sees as the future of the diamond industry, particularly in a world where sustainability and corporate social responsibility are playing an increasing important part.

In 1991, a then 20-something year old Eira Thomas set off to explore for diamonds in the Canadian North. This led to her being involved in the discovery of what was to become the Diavik Diamond mine - Canada’s second major diamond discovery and arguably one of the worlds richest diamond mines. Some 30 years later, Eira is still involved in the industry - nowadays she is the CEO of Lucara Diamond Company. Eira was kind enough to sit down with me and share some of her recollections of the...

At the end of all of our interviews, Steve and I always ask our guests two questions: what is something they think that needs to live or be maintained in the mining industry at all costs; and what is something that needs to die or be jettisoned out of our industry? We thought it would be interesting to put together some of these responses we have received to those questions over the years. So on this episode of Ideas that Must Die and Live in Mining, we are joined by, Justin Strharsky,...

At the end of all of our interviews, Steve and I always ask our guests two questions: what is something they think that needs to live and what is something that needs to die in the mining industry? We thought it would be interesting to put together some of these responses we have received to those questions over the years. So on this episode of Ideas That Must, we are joined by, in order, Mark Bennett, Attila Pentek, Richard Scott, Holly Bridgwater, Mark Bennett (again), Marcus Lake, Michelle...

At the end of all of our interviews, Steve and I always ask our guests two questions: what is something they think that needs to live and what is something that needs to die in the mining industry? We thought it would be interesting to put together some of these responses we have received to those questions over the years.So on this episode of Ideas that Must die in Mining, we are joined by, in order, Jon Goodman, Attila Pentek, Jon Hronsky, Tony Manini, Hedley Widdup and Mary Poulton. Lets...

Keith Barron is often referred to as the Indiana Jones of Mining. His search for the Lost Cities of Gold could easily be a movie plot line. But there is so much more to this story than that. 

The elephant in the room is that the mining industry has lost the trust of the most serious investors, causing an exodus of capital that will not return quickly. 

A common career fork in the road: to stay and be loyal to a company to earn opportunities? Or to leave and pursue challenges elsewhere? That is the question in the minds of many.

Over the last 4 years, Steve and I have been the interviewers asking all the questions. This time, we are the ones answering the questions. And you the listeners get to find out what you have always wanted to know about Exploration Radio.

Career paths for executives and managers are usually well established. For technical roles, usually not so. What is Kathy Ehrig's secret to surviving as one for nearly 3 decades at BHP? Learning a new language.

UNCOVER was a cooperative project setup between academia and industry to combat the declining rate of mineral discoveries in Australia. One of the things to come out of it was NExUS. But overall, the project has struggled to meet some of the main goals it set out to achieve. 

Over 80 years ago, Walt Disney started teaching his employees how to become better animators. Richard Lilly and NExUS are trying to do the same with geoscientists now.

Everyone says making changes in big companies is like turning around the Titanic. Find out how Sam Walsh did it for one of the biggest companies in the world. 

We are obsessed with technology that gives us data in real time. What we really need is the ability to make better decisions in near real time.

Would early stage exploration be more successful in attracting investment if it was funded by private investors... like how venture capital firms fund startups in other industries. 

Everyone in the industry has an opinion on how major companies should run exploration. Maybe it is time we have an honest conversation about why these companies have to be different.

All innovation programs have a 70/30 rule associated with them. Only 30% of the problem is related to the technology. The other 70% is all about people's behaviours. To be successful, you have to solve both.

Did you know that 3M started off as mining venture in 1902? Over the last 100 years, it has become a materials company. Would mining companies be more sustainable as a business if they were more vertically integrated? Should they do more than just mining?

Social license issues have become commonplace in mining. In OECD countries, where there are more avenues of industrial development, navigating these has its own risks. We perceive these countries to be low risk for mining development. But is that changing?

A lot of the debate around data science in mining focuses on the what and the why: what information do geologists and engineers need to learn and why do they need to learn it. But the real question is: how do we learn from each other?

Mining has always been considered a laggard in adopting real-time analytics when compared to the oil and gas industry. This was not because of a lack of interest. In reality, there were some good reasons why this did not work in mining. Until now.     

Would academic research be more relevant to industry if academics adopted a more entrepreneurial approach? What could the lean startup model teach researchers?

A geologist, an engineer, and a social scientist walk into a bar. They discuss how the value proposition of resource development has changed and how we need to evolve it beyond just the economic benefit it provides.

Bill Joy once said "There are always more smart people outside your company than within it"... So should we be looking at ways to utilise the wisdom of the crowd? Are the many cleverer than the few?