Picture from Dr. Elena Clarici Keynote Address "Role of Mining and Mineral Commodities in a Changing Global Landscape"
There is a whole industry of research. It is a hive of probing and prediction. It does not produce much except prophesy. It does have entertainment value of sorts. A lot of buzzing prophesies but not much honey. It is a land of hubris and self importance because nobody wants to listen to the meek and unsure. There is the ambition to understand trends and the impact of big decisions. What will happen if the Fed raises interest rates or Chinese growth falters? God must be smiling. Study the tea leaves and tell me about the next cup of tea and how it will be different this time. The problem is when you look backwards to question, God forbid. Did you ever ask these pundits why their predictions predictably fail? I did once. No intelligible answer. Now we have behavioural economics to explain how markets work. All I can say is good luck with predicting the emotional behaviour of humans. How does the very prediction affect behaviour and the outcome? Now the rational approach is to understand the irrational. Even If these prophets could predict the event the outcome would be unknown. There is law of unintended consequences. Squinting at the horizon the Black Swans glides into our lake of tranquillity. We cannot control so why bother fussing about the big picture and listen to the buzzing in our ear. We might be far better spending time on small and real things. Things we can understand. Cultivating our own patch rather than grappling with agrarian policy. This is something we can control. Focus on the value in good solid things in safe and talented hands. You can also assume that if the herd is stampeding around something then you should stop and take a careful look at it. All these small things add up to a big thing. May be even a thriving economy?
My thought for the day is from the poet Maya Angelou and her perfect summary of a vocation. People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel”.
The God of Small Things (1997) is the debut novel of Indian writer Arundhati Roy. It is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the “Love Laws” that lay down “who should be loved, and how. And how much.” The book explores how the small things affect people’s behavior and their lives. It won the Booker Prize in 1997.
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