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by Dr Sarah Gordon and Critical Productions
The podcast about responsible mining, critical minerals and the raw materials behind modern life, from the energy transition to the buildings we live in. Each week, geologist and sustainability specialist Dr Sarah Gordon sits down with engineers, investors, policymakers, researchers and community leaders from across the mineral value chain to explore how decisions about raw materials are really made: what works, what doesn't, and the trade-offs in between.
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Beth Candy was born in a South African gold mining town, studied geology in Johannesburg and went straight into environmental consulting, when legislation was still thin and the community was small enough to phone a friend. After moving to the UK in 2019 she joined the corporate office of a global mining major, working on permitting across Latin America, Australia, Europe and Africa. Today she advises juniors, mid-tiers and private equity. Beth’s argument is that permitting is not one team’s job. It is everyone’s, and it belongs in the conversation from the first idea. She uses a gold project in Chile, where a rejected permit meant a year of negotiation and a delayed construction start, to show what late engagement costs. And she is clear about her role: a voice for communities, not a post box. The conversation also covers workshops from Brazil to South Africa, due diligence on old mines, teaching Imperial College students to price community risk, and what it would take for “I work in mining” to earn curiosity rather than a closed face. Produced by Critical Productions. Sponsored by Satarla. Learn more at responsiblerawmaterials.com
Cornwall’s 4,000-year mining heritage has left more than engine houses behind. Geologist Eva Marquis, innovation fellow and lecturer at the Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter, works on critical minerals, the circular economy and responsible mining in the landscape she grew up in. Its abandoned mine workings now host ferns, lichens and microbial mats that glow under UV light. Those accidental ecosystems raise one of the hardest questions in mine closure: should old mine sites be remediated, or have generations of history given them a value of their own?For Eva, the answer depends on context, and on managing resources at a regional scale rather than one project at a time. One mine may be manageable. Three in the same region stack up mine waste and impacts that outlast closure, often leaving local governments to carry the cost. The conversation also covers Cornish knockers and pasties, the UN Resource Management System, critical minerals policy, and a sustainable future for Cornwall. Produced by Critical Productions. Learn more at responsiblerawmaterials.com
Dr Matt Grimshaw is an exploration geologist and a Yorkshireman through and through. His curiosity about the landscape took him from Leeds to the Yukon, collecting soil samples by helicopter during the white gold rush, then back for a PhD on the region’s gold. After years of technical consulting worldwide, he stepped sideways into risk and sustainability, and has since co-founded Worth Discovery.Matt’s challenge is to the assumptions the industry rarely questions. Finding a deposit is not the same as finding a project. With mines taking fifteen to twenty years to reach production, why are so many decisions still based on designs from decades ago? And why justify exploration with shifting narratives, from rare earths to defence, rather than the enduring role of a steward of the land? Responsibility, he argues, can’t simply be declared. It has to be demonstrated.The conversation also moves through Yorkshire’s mining past, from Pennine lead to the Woodsmith Mine, the Hunger Games of junior exploration, why generalists matter, and the question his daughters will one day ask.Produced by Critical Productions. Learn more at responsiblerawmaterials.com
What happens when a geologist’s daughter grows up, ignores the rocks, and then finds herself championing the very industry she once overlooked? In this episode, Susie - affectionately known as “Minerals Mum” - joins us to explore her journey from product design and teaching into the world of minerals, geology and extractives. Growing up in Cornwall with a geologist for a dad, Susie was surrounded by rocks and mining heritage, but it took a different career path and a passion for education to bring her back to the sector. Now, through Minerals Matter, she is working to change perceptions of the minerals industry and inspire the next generation. We talk about taking geology and mining into schools, the importance of field trips and teacher engagement, the huge range of careers within the sector, and why young people need to understand just how much modern life depends on minerals. Susie also shares the challenges facing the industry, from an ageing workforce and skills shortages to misconceptions about mining, and the exciting opportunities emerging as Cornwall’s minerals sector embraces new technologies and projects. From STEM fairs and school visits to encouraging more women into the industry, this is a conversation about awareness, passion, collaboration and creating that first spark of curiosity. And yes, there’s plenty of talk about rocks along the way. Produced by Critical Productions. Sponsored by Satarla. Learn more at responsiblerawmaterials.com
How can better information help us keep critical raw materials in circulation? In this episode, Sarah speaks with Jessica Green, an expert in traceability, circularity and digital product passports, about the role of data in building a more circular economy. Jessica explains why circularity is about much more than recycling, and why products need to be designed with repair, reuse, remanufacturing and material recovery in mind. She explains how digital product passports could help us understand where materials come from, what products contain, how they perform throughout their lives, and what happens to them at end of life. The conversation also explores the challenges around data quality, verification, trust, regulation and international standards, and how better traceability could create greater accountability across global supply chains. Produced by Critical Productions. Sponsored by Satarla. Learn more at responsiblerawmaterials.com
Platinum Group Metals and the 100% Recycled Myth, with Emma Schofield.Emma Schofield is a chemist who spent 22 years in the platinum group metals (PGM) industry at Johnson Matthey, the world's largest secondary refiner. A former inorganic chemistry lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, she found her way into industry by reading the labels on lab bottles. Her work spanned catalyst chemistry, new uses for palladium and PGM policy, and she now consults as an associate with Satarla. PGM recycling is one of the circular economy's quiet success stories, driven by value and two centuries of stewardship. Yet Emma challenges the growing demand for 100% recycled platinum. With the market in deficit and only around a fifth of annual demand met by recycling, one buyer claiming recycled metal simply pushes others towards mined supply. The industry, she argues, still needs mining. The conversation also covers catalytic converter recycling, closed-loop supply chains, why design for recycling loses out to performance, extended producer responsibility, battery passports, the risks of stockpiling small metal markets, and why policymakers should swap cross-assuming for cross-learning. Produced by Critical Productions. Sponsored by Satarla. Learn more at responsiblerawmaterials.com
Liv Carroll is a geologist and mining transformation specialist whose career spans the UK minerals industry, mineral exploration in Turkey and a decade using data and AI to transform mining and metals companies. The spark came at nine, when the Gaia Atlas of Planet Management showed her the scale of global resource use, later leading her to choose geology over medicine. She now runs her own advisory firm and starts a part-time PhD in January.Her research asks how to build secondary metal supply chains at scale, recovering metals from wind turbines, EV batteries and copper pipes. Liv argues business as usual cannot meet critical minerals demand driven by electrification, data centres and defence. The harder barrier isn't engineering. It's supply, demand, skills and policy, with government, industry and academia needing to work as one system.The conversation also covers the circular economy, why the UK exports its scrap copper, why transformation should be iterative rather than linear, the habit of thinking two steps ahead, and the value of diverse thinking in the minerals industry and why a thriving community is one you help build.Produced by Critical Productions. Sponsored by Satarla. Learn more at responsiblerawmaterials.com
What does social conflict actually cost a mining company - not in reputation, but in dollars? Sarah is joined by Doron Tadmor, who recently completed his PhD studying how mining companies navigate stakeholder and political risk with indigenous communities.The conversation centres on Doron's paper in Resources Policy, which examined 28 large-scale mining projects in Peru and identified $31.9 billion in conflict-related costs - 93% of it from lost productivity due to blockades and suspended operations. But the more interesting finding is on the other side: companies that invest early in proactive community engagement see significantly lower costs over time.Sarah and Doron dig into what that engagement actually looks like in practice, why Doron thinks the industry should move past the idea of a "social license to operate" toward genuine "social integration," and why understanding a community's history with past mining projects matters as much as understanding the geology. It's a much needed conversation that puts hard numbers behind an argument many have made for years: doing right by communities and doing right by the business are actually the same strategy.Read Doron's papers below:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420726001893https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41267-025-00778-yProduced by Critical Productions. Sponsored by Satarla.
The podcast about responsible mining, critical minerals and the raw materials behind modern life, from the energy transition to the buildings we live in. Each week, geologist and sustainability specialist Dr Sarah Gordon sits down with engineers, investors, policymakers, researchers and community leaders from across the mineral value chain to explore how decisions about raw materials are really made: what works, what doesn't, and the trade-offs in between.
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