If we are going to get into a debate on what activities are, or are not, 
worthwhile then what is the worth of anything given that in the long run we 
are all dead?  John Menzies post makes more sense to me.
Regards
John Elliot

Anzeco Pty. Limited
mineral exploration consulting services
Bathurst, NSW 2795, AUSTRALIA
 http://tinyurl.com/ElliotBay


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John C. Menzies" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 12:37 AM
Subject: Re: The Real Price of Gold - Channel 4 TV programme 27 June


> Peter,
>
> Gold has great purpose.  It's a metal which people are prepared to 
> purchase
> -  often for its beauty.  It is rather pretty.  The mining of this metal
> produces income for a very large number of people in developing countries
> who use the income to educate their children and improve their lives.  Is 
> it
> really so different to the building of an eco-tourist lodge in the 
> jungle -
> where rich westerners come to feast their appetites  - what use is this.
> You might even argue that the gift of gold has longer term "value" in that
> the trip is quickly forgotten while the gold is not.  The energy consumed 
> by
> the rich westerner in getting to the desired holiday destination needs
> little comment.  I would also comment that the employees I have spoken to 
> in
> such resorts all seemed happy enough -  but were not generally paid well -
> although the destination might be an expensive one for the western 
> tourist.
>
> So who is more exploited here -  the family mining for gold or the worker 
> at
> the tourist destination?
>
> Modern mining can have a positive impact just like the tourist resort. 
> The
> tourist resort will not however flourish unless there is infrastructure 
> and
> gold mining produces far more rapid return to communities than the resort 
> I
> would suggest.  The taxation income from a profitable 200,000 ounce mine
> with a  20 year mine life far exceeds most resorts and I doubt that very
> many resorts have expansive community relations health, infrastructure and
> educational programs although they all espouse eco awareness however 
> shallow
> the claim (who has not seen the rubbish about recycling towels).
>
> Keep exploring and don't worry about the leftists.  It really is not nice 
> to
> launch into them -  surely they have a right to make money from their 
> films
> -  for that is surely their objective.
>
> John C Menzies
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Mineral Deposits Studies Group listserver
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Treloar, Peter J
> Sent: Saturday, 25 June 2011 2:48 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [GEO-MINERALISATION] The Real Price of Gold - Channel 4 TV
> programme 27 June
>
> Hi Richard
>
> Been there - done that.
> And yeah - it hurts a bit.
>
> I wonder if the eco warriers will pick up on the fact that Gold has
> essentially no purpose - excpet as a currency hedge or as a ring or chain 
> to
> adorn. As pretty much off all  of the cost of getting the stuff from
> exploration to product on the jewellers shelf (shall we say $800 an ounze)
> is energy what does that do to help ward off climate change. Not a lot.
>
> I plan to keep quiet about that as well!!
>
> Best wishes
>
> Peter
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: The Mineral Deposits Studies Group listserver
> [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Richard Herrington
> [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 24 June 2011 16:04
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [GEO-MINERALISATION] The Real Price of Gold -  Channel 4 TV
> programme 27 June
>
> Just off the press - I have just got this email in from the TV company:
>
> Dear Richard,
>
> I'm just writing to let you know that the programme will be going out next
> Monday, 27th June, at 8pm.  I'm afraid that in final cut we haven't ended 
> up
> using your interview.  It is, of course, nothing to do with the interview
> itself, but just changing requirements of the programme.
>
> I would like to thank you for your time and I do hope you enjoy the film.
> If you'd like a DVD copy, let me know and I'll arrange for one to be 
> posted
> to you.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Blakeway Productions Ltd (a Ten Alps company)
> 6 Anglers Lane
>
> Looks like my facts got in the way of their good story..... There you go 
> for
> journalistic impartiality !!!
>
> Prof Richard Herrington
> Department of Mineralogy
> The Natural History Museum
> Cromwell Road
> London SW7 5BD
> UK
> Tel: +44(0)207 942 5528
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: The Mineral Deposits Studies Group listserver on behalf of Chris
> MacKenzie
> Sent: Fri 24/06/2011 14:16
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: The Real Price of Gold - Channel 4 TV programme 27 June
>
>
>
> Outrageous fortitude Dr. H,
>
> Greetings from Southern Tanzania (Lupa goldfields). I was out in the bush
> yesterday, chatting to a bunch of artisanals who were illegally working 
> near
> our prospects (ah, but to some of course, they are "subsistence miners", 
> and
> to be patted on the back for making a go of things as opposed to those
> horrible, multinational companies).
>
> Anyhow, perhaps the attached photo will be useful in illustrating some
> issues.  Suffice to say those horrible European Wazungu's in the photo
> weren't forcing this child to work.  No, he was happily getting on with 
> his
> business, and the Tanzanian bloke working with him turns round to us and
> proudly introduced him as his son!
>
> You couldn't make this up.  She actually exposed a shop assistant giving
> misleading information!  Whatever next...
>
>
> PS - is a "successful ethical travel company" one where it's clients stay 
> at
> home and massage their substantial accumulations of middle-class guilt?
>
>
> Best regards
>
>
>
> Chris
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Mineral Deposits Studies Group listserver
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Richard Herrington
> Sent: 24 June 2011 09:27
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [GEO-MINERALISATION] The Real Price of Gold - Channel 4 TV
> programme 27 June
>
> Dear all
>
> I put my hands up as I think I shall appear on the programme, I was
> contacted on the back of the little book on gold that the NHM published a
> while back.  I was interviewed about it and tried (maybe unsuccessfully-
> they haven't shown me the version of the interview to be broadcast) to get
> them to put some perspective into the programme.  I pointed out the
> difficulties of tracing high street gold to source and indicating as Gawen
> says how little gold is actually sourced from artisinals.  I get the
> impression tht the programme is aimed at bashing the low-cost end of the
> high-street stores, a kind of Gap/Primark child labour expose although 
> there
> is likely to be some comments about the 'toxic waste' end of the mining
> story and the wish to apply something like the Kimberley Process to gold
> which of course is highly problematic given the refining story.
>
> Let's see but I may have to suffer the slings and arrows along with the
> others involved!
>
> Richard Herrington
>
> Department of Mineralogy
> The Natural History Museum
> Cromwell Road
> London SW7 5BD
> UK
> Tel: +44(0)207 942 5528
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: The Mineral Deposits Studies Group listserver on behalf of Jenkin,
> Gawen R.T. (Dr.)
> Sent: Thu 23/06/2011 21:58
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: The Real Price of Gold - Channel 4 TV programme 27 June
>
>
>
> Hmm, this forthcoming documentary might be something to raise your blood
> pressure a bit.
>
> "Dispatches challenges the British gold jewellery industry to come clean
> about where the gold in their jewellery comes from. Businesswoman Deirdre
> Bounds, who ran a successful ethical travel company, reveals what's wrong
> with the industry and goes on the road to present her unique take on how
> things could be done very differently.
>
> Secretly filming at Britain's biggest high street jewellery chains, Bounds
> exposes shop assistants giving vastly misleading information about where 
> the
> gold in their jewellery is mined. Then, unable to get a straight answer 
> from
> the stores, Bounds travels to the mines where some gold is sourced.
>
> In Senegal, she meets a child miner and reveals his hazardous daily
> existence at an illegal mine. She also looks at allegations that a
> large-scale industrial mine in Honduras has caused hair loss and rashes in
> the local population.
>
> Shocked by what she's seen and the lack of traceability in the 
> supply-chain,
> Bounds sets out to find how things could be done better.
>
> In her search to find an alternative, she explores newly-launched 
> Fairtrade
> and Fairmined gold and also how recycling old gold could offer an answer.
>
> Going undercover, she finds one of Britain's largest gold manufacturers
> [sic] not living up to their pledge to support ethical alternatives. And 
> she
> asks the British public to back her campaign to clean up the British
> jewellery industry."
>
> http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/episode-guide/series-94/episod
> e-1
> Available on the web after the programme has been broadcast (8 pm 27 
> June).
>
> It looks to be tarring the whole industry with the same big brush. Maybe
> someone would like to pull together some less misleading information about
> the industry to put out there in response to this?
>
> Here's a start: Clearly no-one condones the use of child labour in any
> industry across the world, but according to BGS World Mineral Production
> Data 2005-2009 Honduras and Senegal together accounted for 0.3% of global
> gold production in 2009, so the examples given are hardly representative 
> of
> the global mining industry.
>
> All the best,
> Gawen
>
> Chair, Mineral Deposits Studies Group
>
>
>
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Geo-mineralisation is administered by the Mineral Deposits Studies Group (UK)
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