Mining models, reserves, and judgment.
Fresh Thinking by Snowden Optiro treats mining geology as applied decision work, not abstract theory. Recent episodes move between ordinary kriging, recoverable resources, reserve sign-off, model bloat, Excel-based geostatistics, and the history behind Australia's nickel industry.
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Fresh Thinking by Snowden Optiro is a practitioner-led show about the technical work behind mining decisions. Its center of gravity is mineral resource estimation. The conversations are detailed, but not decorative. Recent episodes spend real time on ordinary kriging, over-smoothing, short-scale variability, selective mining units, recoverable resources, uniform conditioning, multiple indicator kriging, conditional simulation, and localized conditional simulation. The show keeps returning to a simple operational question: what does the model allow a mine, engineer, or responsible professional to decide? That gives the technical material a useful edge. When an episode covers ore reserve sign-off, the focus is not paperwork. It is responsibility. The discussion moves through modifying factors, reliable sources, internal consistency, outdated inputs, metallurgy, environmental constraints, social constraints, and the burden carried by the person who signs. Other episodes examine the growing size of resource models. More blocks, more attributes, and more simulations can represent complexity, but they can also slow scheduling and optimization when unused detail becomes friction. The show is comfortable with history as well as method. Its account of Australia's nickel industry uses Kambalda, Western Mining, and Olympic Dam to show how discovery, persistence, and fast execution shaped an industry. It also has a teaching streak. Excel becomes a way to make geostatistics visible from first principles, from pair tables and distance matrices to variograms and sample weights. The register is professional and direct, with enough repetition and explanation to suit serious learners. It is not a general science chat show. It is closer to a continuing technical seminar for geologists, resource modelers, mining engineers, consultants, and investors who need to understand how geological information becomes mine planning judgment.
Made for: Fresh Thinking by Snowden Optiro suits geologists, resource modelers, mining engineers, consultants, and technically minded investors. It works best for listeners who want applied detail rather than surface-level industry commentary.
What sets it apart: The show connects geostatistical methods to the decisions they affect: reserve responsibility, model usability, uncertainty, and mine planning. Its strength is the practitioner conversation around where common tools help, where they mislead, and how professionals judge the difference.
News and information from the world of geology and mining, Fresh Thinking by Snowden Optiro provides a new perspective on the mining industry and seeks to educate on best practice.Snowden Optiro is a resources consulting and advisory group that provides independent advice, consulting and training to mining and exploration companies, their advisors and investors.We help mine developers to advance their projects, mining companies to improve their operations and their professionals, and investors to derisk their investments by the provision of quality advice, training and software in the field of Mineral Resources and Mineral/Ore [email protected] Op…
Hundreds of millions of blocks enter a mine plan; you want to know which earn their keep.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear, practical review of when geological detail belongs in a planning model.
Resource models promise to protect geological complexity, but this review draws out the tension at the center of the episode: too much detail can turn a planning tool into a data warehouse.
A grounded look at how geological judgment gets tested by software, statistics, and the phrase "industry standard."
Mineral resource estimation may sound like a room-clearing phrase, but this episode gives it a practical center: what counts as an industry standard, and how those standards appear in domaining, data analysis, and estimation.
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Coastal science, patiently and beautifully reported.
Soil life, climate repair, practical regeneration.
This episode explores recoverable resource methods in mineral estimation, focusing on techniques like conditional simulation to predict tonnage-grade curves from pre-grade control data.
This episode introduces a seven-part series on modern resource estimation, discussing conventional techniques like ordinary kriging and the role of conditional simulation.
Ian Glacken discusses the discovery of nickel at Kambalda in 1966, which launched Australia's nickel industry.
Taron Ilkington and Alan Earle discuss the responsibilities and implications of signing off on a mineral reserve in the mining industry.
Fresh Thinking by Snowden Optiro pairs Jamie Opola, a Senior Geology Consultant, with mining engineer Taryn Elkington to examine why resource models have grown into "hundreds of millions of blocks" and multiple gigabytes.
Greg Zhang says mineral resource estimation "industry standard" is a moving target, not a fixed rule, because he and Ian Glacken review projects across commodities and deposit styles.
Fresh Thinking by Snowden Optiro examines how resource geologists and mining engineers exchange models, assumptions, and responsibilities during mineral resource estimation and mine planning.
Fresh Thinking by Snowden Optiro examines why mining operations separate resource geology from metallurgy, even though hardness, clay, sulfides, and carbonaceous material can change plant performance.
Fresh Thinking by Snowden Optiro examines an Excel screening tool for comparing in-pit crushing and conveying with trucking through NPV, IRR, and payback calculations.
A discussion on the hype and reality of AI in mining, drawing parallels to past disruptive technologies.
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Tarent Elkton explains how adjusting cutoff grades above marginal levels can boost NPV by 20% in mining projects.
A mining industry podcast discussing how investors and technical professionals should critically read ASX announcements about mineral resource estimates.