Responsible Raw Materials Podcast

A Deposit Isn’t a Project: Rethinking Mineral Exploration, with Matt Grimshaw

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast

Show Notes

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

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