Measured

In this conversation, René sits down with Sefton Darby to unpack why ESG has attracted so much backlash—and what that means for mining, permitting, and public trust. They talk about the difference between sustainability reporting and real-world outcomes, why “social performance” work often fails when it’s treated as purely external comms, and what the best operators do differently: long lead times, strong internal links to operatio...

Why Projects Blow the Budget: Consultants Tell All

Welcome to a deep-dive conversation on the realities of consulting and project management. In this episode, Rene sits down with industry leaders —Tarrant Elkington (GM, Snowden Optiro Consultants), Andrew Hall (MD, AMC Consultants), and Mark Noppé (ex-CEO, XSTRACT Consultants & Chair of SRK) —to explore why so many projects run over budget and what consultants can do a...

In this conversation, Tim Craske, Director and CEO Geowisdom and Thinker Events, and Rene explore how to drive the industry forward and inspire the next generation of geologists. Discussing the importance of scientific debate and the challenges of fostering innovation in the mining industry they touch on the need for long-term strategy, the impact of geopolitical shifts, and the role of mentoring and nurturing new talent. 

Rene Sterk dives into the world of National Instrument 43-101 and its upcoming changes. Victoria Yehl, who has worked with the British Columbia Securities Commission for 9 years, shares her expertise on NI 43-101, explains the key changes proposed by the Canadian Securities Administrators, and discusses the importance of engaging technical communication.  

Want to learn more about National Instrument 43-101? You can find a...

In this thought-provoking conversation on the future of mining, Rene delves into the complexities of the mining industry with insights from industry experts Steve Beresford and Scott North. They explore the challenges of exploration, the impact of societal distractions, and the psychological and behavioural roots of the problem. Steve, a man of many hats, including Director of Power Metallic, Founder of Altai Resources, Adjunct Pro...

Heath Arvidson, Chief Scientist at Quartex (formerly K2Fly), has a strong background in mining reconciliation and resource governance. He’s co-authored influential papers with Craig Morley and Rayleen Hargreaves, and recently published a white paper titled "A Management System for Mine Reconciliation", highlighting overlooked aspects of reconciliation.
In this chat with Rene, Heath shares how public reporting standard...

In this episode of Measured, Rene interviews Mo Srivastava, a Senior Consultant at Red Dot 3D and renowned geostatistician. Reflecting on his dynamic career, Mo shares his continually evolving perspective on the philosophies that underpin consulting, as well as some memorable stories and anecdotes from his global travels. Mo and Rene discuss how effective and meaningful consulting needs to be more than simply supplying technical so...

Rayleen Hargreaves, Principal Consultant at Snowden Optiro took time out of her busy schedule to answer René’s questions on reconciliation, the common issues encountered, and new industry tools that can assist with reconciliation. 

Timestamps: 
1:38 Why is it so hard to break reconciliation out of Excel? 
7:19 Dealing with people problems in reconciliation 
10:00 Should there be peer review and auditing guideli...

After spending most of his working life within large organisations, Paul Hodkiewicz is now an independent consultant (Samarah Solutions).
Following his participation in a panel discussion at the MRE conference last month, Paul sat down with Rene and discussed how to handle the data overload many of us face, and the need to be able to agree to disagree in order to solve the big problems facing our the industry.

Timestam...

Mike Stewart is a Technical Domain Expert for Seequent, the creators of Leapfrog software. Mike was one of our first Measured podcast guests, and filmed Measured #5 with Rene back in July 2022, so it was about time for another chat. 

Filmed at the AusIMM’s Mineral Resource Estimation Conference in Perth, Mike outlines new developments within Leapfrog, and discusses with Rene the value in the recent Seequent Evo release and Seequent&...

Rene caught up with Angus Tod, Vice President Global Commercial at Veracio, while he was on site at the MREC showcasing Veracio’s core scanning technology. They talked about the challenges in conveying the value new technology such as core scanning can bring to the industry.

Veracio (https://www.veracio.com) provides mineral exploration and mining companies with a range of technology solutions that are specifically designe...

Measured has been doing the rounds again, this time featuring a ‘Round Table’ meeting with several industry experts. 

In this special episode of (Un)Measured, René sits down with Mark Hall, Jon Hronsky, Dave Lawie, Jacqui Coombes, and R. Mohan ("Mo") Srivastava to discuss their backgrounds and how and why they progressed in their respective fields. Join them as they discuss accidental careers, the highs and lows ...

Measured hit the road earlier this month to catch up with friends and industry experts at the AusIMM’s Mineral Resource Estimation Conference in Perth. 

In this episode, René is joined by Bruce Armstrong, Managing Director at and Co-Founder of Independent Mineral Standards (IMS), to discuss the journey of the company that Bruce started, and what motivated him Bruce to choose this the entrepreneurial pathway. They also chat...

Measured hit the road earlier this month to catch up with friends and industry experts at the AusIMM’s Mineral Resource Estimation Conference in Perth. 

In this episode, René is joined by Matt Briggs, Non-Executive Director of Odyssey Gold, to discuss the Minerals Reporting Australia initiative that Matt has been influential in establishing. They discuss what led to the creation of the not-for-profit organisation, how it will be man...

Andrew Gillis from Redteam Projects (https://redteamprojects.com) joined me to discuss various mining industry topics, including capital project performance, risk management, and innovation within the mining industry. 

Measured is RSC’s podcast series, with RSC Managing Director and Principal Consultant René Sterk conversing with a range of industry personalities. Expect a range of talking points, many with a technical the...

Everyone is talking about how we’re facing a talent shortage in the minerals industry, so I sat down with Jon Taylor of Discovery Group, which specialises in technical and executive mining recruitment, to hear about the trends he’s seeing. 

Jon discusses how to sell yourself and improve your CV, whether you should include a photo, the influence of AI in recruitment, and misconceptions about recruiters.

Measured is RSC’s podcast serie...

Should we use ranges on our publicly reported resource estimates to better reflect uncertainty? In this episode, I sit down with Andy Clay to hear how he sees the world of resource classification and variance in estimations.

Measured is RSC’s podcast series, with RSC Managing Director and Principal Consultant René Sterk conversing with a range of industry personalities. Expect a range of talking points, many with a techni...

Rapidly advancing to the highest level of technical management in Tier-1 companies, while raising a family in challenging jurisdictions, Jill Terry also casually trained for a half marathon on the side! If you don’t get inspiration from this conversation, then we don’t know who next to talk to!

Measured is RSC’s podcast series, with RSC Managing Director and Principal Consultant René Sterk conversing with a range of indust...

The conceptual founder of Leapfrog, Jun Cowan has an abundance of knowledge to share about geological modelling. Jun joins Rene in the Dunedin studio to discuss how he got his start, Leapfrog and his latest paper.

Measured is RSC’s podcast series, with RSC Managing Director and Principal Consultant René Sterk conversing with a range of industry personalities. Expect a range of talking points, many with a technical theme, b...