During the long, dark days of winter a bit of bling could bring some New Year cheer and with the High Street democratising dazzle and eBay selling Tiffany knock-offs, if you are after a real diamond then you need to know it’s provenance. On the whole only the provenance of costly, head-turning pieces of jewellery are recorded but it is often this record or story of how particular pieces of jewellery have been lovingly given, kept, passed on or sold that provides these precious stones with a history and, very often, increases their value.

Take for example the Taylor-Burton diamond. Did the miners who extracted the original rough diamond in 1966 in the Premier Mine, South Africa recognise its value or how famous the stone would become? Cut by Harry Winston, one of the most famous jewellers of his time, this jewel was known as the world’s first million dollar diamond.  At that time the diamond was named the Cartier Diamond and used in a necklace.  Later on Richard Burton purchased the diamond for his wife Elizabeth Taylor for a reported sum of $1.1 million. As top movie stars and probably the most famous couple at that time the diamond appeared at several ‘events’ and became known as the Cartier-Burton Diamond.

When the couple divorced the diamond was sold by Ms Taylor for $5m and the money was used to build a hospital in Botswana. The current owner, Robert Mouawad has had the diamond recut and, as one of the world’s most significant gem collectors, is well placed to make the comment: “Each diamond is unique and has personality traits, some more appealing than others. The whiteness or fancy colour, the size, the clarity, the cut, the immortal character, are all factors that contribute to the overall beauty of a stone. But it is the human touch that unveils its beauty. In its rough state it hides its true potential value. Also, the true historical value of a gem, from its formation to its birth on the earth’s surface, and the many lives it has affected, are all intangibles that add to its mystique.”

So next time you’re mining for minerals and you are lucky enough to come across a rough diamond start the history/provenance immediately and get yourself a well-known celebrity to model it.  Second thoughts we’ve all heard the story of Naomi Campbell and the blood diamond scandal …

Our philosophy on customer service is, I’m sure, not unique but actions, so they say, are louder than words. At Van Walt we don’t like mistakes, they cost time, money and customer loyalty. That’s why we try and put in place processes and procedures to ensure we pick up our mistakes before equipment leaves our premises but, occasionally, equipment breaks or doesn’t work. When this happens, for us, it is how we deal with it that sets us apart from other suppliers.

So, as soon as you identify there’s a problem, let us know so we can try and resolve the issue immediately, over the phone if we can. If we can’t, we aim to get a replacement piece of kit to you as soon as possible and repair or replace the item in question.

Our approach is to be fair and reasonable, minimising your downtime while always keeping an eye on costs – yours and ours.

We want to stand out from other suppliers and this is better illustrated in the latest round of updates to our main website, in particular the new ‘intro’ we have added (for regular visitors to the site you will need to click the logo on the Home Page to see the film) and our new brochure from which it is derived. This says more about our attitude to customer service with a real emphasis on helpful tips and advice rather than a focus on products. Download a copy here.

There are other things in the pipeline too like developing the concept of data redundancy which we can only do if we really understand the work you are doing and the importance of the data you are collecting – watch this space for developments. We are also undertaking additional staff training to allow us to repair more equipment and retrieve data at our premises rather than the delay of returning equipment to our overseas suppliers; using technology and social media to get more useful, practical information to you so you can access it onsite via smart phone technology.

These things all take time but we are making excellent progress so please keep watching ‘this space’ or sign up to receiving our regular customer newsletter by email tracey@vanwalt.com with your details.

It is fair to say that women and mining don’t have a natural synergy. Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or soil from the earth and often takes place underground, in harsh and dirty conditions in some of the most inaccessible of places. Not an environment where you would naturally place a woman, however, recently the two have been charted together when Gina Rinehart was named Australia’s richest citizen.

Mrs Rinehart’s is the heiress of Hancock Prospecting and the daughter of mining magnate Lang Hancock her fortune is now estimated at Australian Dollars 9 billion and she is the first woman to hold the number one spot as Australia’s richest person at the same time as the country also has its first woman Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.

Mrs Rinehart, 57, took over the business of her late father in 1992 and is credited with expanding and developing mines in Western Australia and Queensland. Since then the business has benefited from the Asia-driven mining boom as well as the general recovery of fortunes following the global financial crisis.

It’s fairly certain Mrs Rinehart has never done any mineral exploration but the geologists in her business will certainly have used Window Sampling equipment at some point in their mineral exploration activities.

For more information on our equipment, click here.

Mineral exploration in Afghanistan has revealed an ancient Buddhist site discovered near Kabul which dates back to a time before Islam arrived in the country. Now this site is under threat from a Chinese mining venture.

The site, once an Al-Qaeda training camp, is now owned by a Chinese mining company.  It’s ironic that it was copper that brought the monks to the site more than 1400 hundred years ago. They mined the copper and built a Buddhist kingdom around the precious metal.  Copper led to the creation of the monastery but may also lead to its destruction.

The Chinese have purchased the mineral rights to the land andmining it will generate much needed revenue to this desperately poor country but the cost – the destruction of the whole area.

The archaeologists are adamant that the site and its treasures can be saved.  They have a year in which to salvage as much as they can and transport it to a museum.  In the meantime China and the world’s appetite for copper continues to rise but, in a country which has already been raped of its cultural heritage, wouldn’t it be nice if this time both could be achieved.

The rate of change on base metal prices around the globe is as volatile as the world’s weather. The latest metal to drop, when in reality a world shortage is predicted, is copper. Those in the know expect a drop in purchases by Japan following the earthquake and tsunami on March 11 which closed factories and caused the worst nuclear accident in a quarter century. That trend should reverse because the country, the fourth-biggest copper user, will need to rebuild, draining stocks of copper as growth in mining output slows as no new mines are brought on stream this year.

China, which uses 39% of the world’s copper saw a drop in demand because of the week-long Lunar New Year holiday and although still predicted to grow at more than five times the pace of the euro region, the statistics for  next month will be crucial to copper prices. On the other hand the US economy is “getting better month by month,” according to Warren Buffett, with business activity growth in March at almost the fastest pace in two decades and consumer confidence rose for the first time in five weeks so now forecasters say the economy will expand 3.1% this year, compared with 2.9% last year.

While commodity prices beat stocks, bonds and the US dollar in the first quarter of 2011 the protests across northern Africa and the Middle East boosted crude prices to their highest in more than two years. And, as both copper and zinc were among the worst performers of 24 raw materials, it was somewhat surprising that sugar, wheat and cocoa were also among the losers, (even though food prices in the UK are still on the rise).

The impact of events in Japan and the Middle East may mean that metals prices stall in the next several months before rebounding but the world economy is still expanding. Gross domestic product growth will accelerate to 4.4% in the third quarter and 4.5% in the following three months, compared with 3.8% this quarter and this means demand for all commodities and metals will rise …. Or so says the experts – but who knows what other natural disasters are round the corner and which other countries will experience social unrest.

So the question for anyone involved in mining remains what, by when and by how much, next week, next month, next year?  Post your answers below …..

The world’s rush for gold doesn’t seem likely to abate. Although primarily used as a store of value, gold has many modern industrial uses including dentistry and electronics – that means mobile phones and with four major regions of the world (Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East) and 40 countries (including India, Indonesia, and Nigeria) predicted to have more people with mobile network access rather than access to electricity at home, by 2015 – then the appetite for gold will continue and mining companies need to persist in bringing to production potentially lucrative projects.

That’s why it’s good news when our customer, Banro Corporation, recently announced its Namoya gold project in the Democratic Republic of Congo could be exploited using heap-leaching gold recovery, after a revised scoping study found potential for 124,000oz/y of production.

Heap-leaching is a technique way beyond Van Walt’s sphere. It’s a process whereby the mined ore is crushed into small chunks and heaped on an impermeable pad where it is irrigated with a leach solution to dissolve the valuable metals. The solution then percolates through the heap and leaches out the precious minerals. This process can take several months to extract the gold and also involves collecting and carefully disposing of the leach solution.

What is interesting about the Namoya project is the exploration and development programmes that were completed which focused on soil sampling and trenching – the latter being right up our street. Our window sampling systems have proved ideal for this type of research as they provide virtually undisturbed samples of a soil for horizon evaluation. Call us on +44 1428 661 660 if you want more details.

All that glitters is not gold but if you are one of the lucky investors to have bought gold – you will be celebrating this Christmas. Gold prices are at a record high and forecast to continue growing in 2011 as investors get the jitters about other global investments.

In Dubai and Germany they have introduced gold vending machines, put your money or credit card in and out pops a gold ingot – is there no end to our obsession with gold? It seems in the short term – no!

That’s why gold mining continues to dominate the landscape in many countries. Active exploration is taking place in the US, South Africa, Russia, Canada, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, Philippines, DRC, Mexico, Australia – this list is not definitive. Let’s hope more and more of these mineral exploration companies get to know about our Window Sampling Systems for horizon evaluations.

It may be small compared to some of the exploration machinery but has already proved very effective, don’t just take our word for it!

The mining sector has received much media coverage recently with the elation of the rescued miners in Chile and the sad news from the coal mine in New Zealand.

Mining images from these and many other locations are always filled with huge drilling rigs, life-sized Tonka trucks and landscapes scrapped bare following the excavation of precious resources. But at the front end – in the prospecting phase – it can be very different.

Recently Van Walt was on site with Loncor, in the DRC at an inaccessible site, in the depths of the jungle and a helicopter ride away from ‘civilisation’.

Our Window Sampling System proved invaluable as it is lightweight and very mobile, delivering virtually undisturbed samples for horizon evaluations. Being low maintenance and highly reliable it has proved accurate in taking samples of the saprolite layer necessary in gold exploration. Easy to use, after training, the system is now getting more meterage than the diamond drillers!

This is a very different image of the mining industry but one that must be replicated the world over in the search for this most precious of resources.

Mineral exploration is the commercial process of finding viable ore such as base metals or precious metals like gold, silver or platinum; or even iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, and limestone to mine. It is a professional form of mineral prospecting which can be very involved and requires a range of equipment and techniques according to the terrain and ore body, vein or seam.

Modern mining processes involve prospecting for ore bodies by physically investigating and looking for signs of mineralisation using sampling and drilling equipment.

For organisations involved in mineral exploration in locations which are difficult to access with the more traditional, large, heavy drilling equipment Van Walt supplies a range of window sampling research equipment and micro-drilling rigs which are light, strong and have excellent penetration speeds – ideal for locating potentially lucrative ore reserves.