The Geologist (from Carl Spitzweg in 1860; Source)
The commercial business of gold and base-metal exploration, discovery and mining is complex and these days highly technical but it is also a wonderfully exciting pursuit and at times hugely rewarding for the risk and sacrifice. It is not just about the intoxication of exciting prospects and their potential but also about the visualisation, courage, conviction, knowledge, perseverance and talent of the explorationist. Exploration is these days more about trying to find what is not visible. This blog is about what catches my fancy in the busines of finding new mines, about demystifying the jargon and making what you might need to know about this business simpler and more transparent and indeed more visible. Let us rediscover the emotion, the passion, the drama and excitement of the chase
"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible"
Jonathan Swift
Dean Jonathan Swift will be remembered for the pleasure he gave to generations all over the world through his writings, particularly Gullivers Travels.
I live not far from the town of Celbridge in County Kildare, Ireland. The town has a romantic connection to Dean Swift as, some hundred and seventy years ago, it was for a short period, the scene of a romance which will not be forgotten as long as the names of Swift and Vanessa live in the pages of history.
Like Gullivers voyage into the unknown I constantly marvel at the courage and abandon that the small individual retail investor approaches the business of exploration and mining. The capacity for specialisation whether that be within a merchant bank, resource fund, an institution or even the coterie attached to a high-net-worth investor by affording to retain mining analysts, geologists and engineers always trumps the small retail investor on the outside who must indeed be resourceful as a magpie in gathering jewels of information from many different sources and use his ingenuity to navigate the minefield of mining. This blog is about exploration, discovery and mining which is a wonderfully exciting, hugely rewarding but highly risky business sometimes played out in very remote parts of the world in jungles and deserts and siberian tundra dealing and engaging with all sorts of regimes. This blog is an attempt to inform, interpret and demystify, as much as I can whatever takes my fancy on the day. - to try and find the essence in simplfying concepts and language and filtering out the jargon for the small investor.
Like any highly specialised and technical pursuit the business of mineral exploration, discovery, mining through mineral processing is a long road bristling with risk and fraught with uncertainty. Beyond, there be great riches for those with the resilience and fortitude and patience of character and indeed the talent and luck to succeed. Sometimes I wonder if the investor truly understands how much risk there really is in exploration and the low probability of success. Failure will be the norm and only mistakes can be reduced with experience. Exploration is indeed more of an art than a science involving the simultaneous juggling of ideas and concepts and models the Multiple Working Hyothesis approach which was the insight of T.C. Chamberlin back in 1890 . It is about how to creatively piece and integrate most importantly observation and knowledge and apply the latest concepts and technology to the search for what cannot be seen. As we continue to explore, the search for new ore deposits is less about targeting exposed at or near the surface minerlised occurrences but increasingly about the search for concealed and ever deeper deposits the quest for the invisible. In an age of technology and sitting in front of computer screens it is the young geologists which gets out in the field and looks at the most rocks who has the best chance of making the discoveries which make a difference. I hope the ruminations which follow will help to demystify, entertain and enlighten. Market regulators constantly strive t0 try and remove the arbitrage of information so as to create a level playing field for all investors. The fact is however that there is and always has been an arbitrage of knowledge and such knowledge is power and will always make the small investor an outsider sometimes like a cow looking into an engine. The big investors can hire specialists but the small investors are usually on their own or in small groups which help to spread and ingrain misunderstandings and misinterpretations. The small investor cannot afford or justify the cost of a site visit to a project and only some can afford the proprietary insights of a brokers mining analyst.
There will be two bundles of despatches, one dedicated to Zinc which is close to my heart as an Irish geologist living on the rim of one of the worlds great zinc-lead districts. Urbanisation devours zinc and it is projected that some three hundred million Chinese will move to cities over the coming decade. There is no price stimulus to go out and explore for new zinc mines and it takes seven to ten years from discovery to production. The other blog strand is based on my general thoughts and comments across all metals and aspects of an industry which is at the core of our civilisation because almost every industry in the world is metal oriented. I will get the urge to comment as particular topics or news emerge and things take my fancy in this broader commercial business of finding and mining metals which are so vital for our way of life on this planet. I hope that you come on this journey with me. Your comments on my blogs are very welcome.
John P. Barry
Managing Director of Irus Consulting Ltd. and Professional Geologist
A widely travelled and highly experienced economic geologist, John Barry is a confidential counsellor to the likely investor contemplating a considerable investment in the intricate business of mining metals. Dont take a flyer and trust altogether in luck and invest your money in an exploration or mining project on the strength of a printed prospectus or the advice of an interested friend without the preliminary investigation and site visit of a reliable geologist with a basic grasp of commerical reality. Irus Consulting provides strategic and practical management advice and guidance to its clients. Time is a precious commodity for my clients, and indeed myself, as it relentlessly ebbs away and so I try as best I can to avoid the mediocre - those projects and their champions which do not engender enthusiastic belief and passion.
Irus Services Include:
- High-level strategic advice
- Practical guidance and assistance on project sourcing, acquisition and implementation
- Rapid identification of key project value-drivers and potential fatal flaws.
- Capacity building and coordination of external consultants.
- Design and targeting of effective marketing campaigns
John Barry was part of very small teams which discovered and sourced several multi-million ounce gold deposits in Africa. He has worked as an economic geologist since 1988 and as a consultant and then responding to the entrepreneurial spirit he was a founder and manager of three public resource companies which raised a total of US$70million. These resource companies are currently successfully exploring and developing gold and base metal projects in Europe, and sub-Sahara Africa. John has seen a lot of rocks working for consultancies such as CSA in both Ireland and Australia and as Senior Associate Geologist with Chlumsky Armbrust & Meyer LLC which is based in Denver. He is a specialist in zin-lead exploration and in 1992 joined the exploration team which discovered the Lisheen zinc-lead deposit in Ireland as the resource was being expanded in the first couple of years after discovery and in 2008 led the first non Polish exploration company to successfully enter and acquire a major resource-project in the Upper Silesian Mississippi-Valley-Type (MVT) zinc-lead district in southern Poland the worlds largest minerlised district of its kind. John (P.Geo and EurGeol) holds a Masters Degree in Geology from Pennsylvania State University and a MBA from the Edinburgh School of Business, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland.
I would like to think that I have shown the tenacity, patience and focus required to implement many of my better ideas over the years and that I have learned valuable lessons from some failures. I believe one of my strengths is in communicating quite complex technical ideas in a concrete way that can be easily understood. I am a team- builder and motivator by projecting my enthusiasm and vision for a project. I am committed to the development of young geologists through supportive delegation. John is now moving more from managing public companies to freelance consultancy and a more advisory role so as to concentrate increasingly on assisting management in effective exploration and discovery. He is Managing Director of his own Exploration Management and Geological Consultancy: Irus Consulting Ltd. Please visit www.irusconsulting.com for more information and free newsletter registration.
John is now moving more from managing public companies to freelance consultancy and a more advisory role so as to concentrate increasingly on assisting management in effective exploration and discovery. He is MD of his own Exploration Management and Geological Consultancy Irus Consulting Ltd.
Click here to download Johns Statement of Qualifications as a PDF