The Mining Pulse

In Episode 19 of The Mining Pulse, hosts James Agenbag and Graeme Smith sit down with Martin Cassidy, Managing Director at Truco, to run the diagnostics on mining fluid handling systems. A chemical engineer and De Beers process veteran, Martin is running one of the oldest companies in Gauteng, founded in 1892, and leverages his deep operational background to unpack the hidden vulnerabilities of a...

In Episode 18 of The Mining Pulse, hosts James Agenbag and Graeme Smith sit down with Robert Grafen-Greaney, global Head of Mining at AON, to run a comprehensive reality check on the modern mining risk landscape. Overseeing a massive $1.2 billion global mining insurance portfolio, Robert leverages his rare dual background as an on-the-ground geologist in East and West Africa and a corporate risk e...

Mike Beare (Co-Founder & COO, H5 Resources Limited) How do you take a brownfield tin mine abandoned in the 1960s, overrun by thousands of artisanal miners, and transform it into a modern, zero-waste, low-carbon operation? In this episode of the Founder Series on The Mining Pulse, we travel to Uganda to speak with Mike Beare, Co-Founder and COO of H5 Resources. H5 is currently undertaking the metho...

Guest: James Campbell (Managing Director at Botswana Minerals, PLC) While global demand for critical raw materials and battery elements like copper and lithium skyrockets, greenfield mineral exploration has dangerously flatlined. With major mining houses becoming increasingly risk-averse and 90% of junior explorers failing due to isolated data sets and tightening investment rules, the industry fac...

Guest: Waldo Boshoff (Optix) Most site incidents and industrial fatalities in the mining sector involve vehicles. While mining assets traditionally rely on reactive safety infrastructure like seatbelts and ROPS, modern predictive analytics are fundamentally changing how operators mitigate vehicle risk on public roads and at the coal face. In this episode of The Mining Pulse, we dive deep into an i...

Guests: Dr. Nicolene Roux (Project Engineer) & Fuldre (GM: Projects & Business Development) at Fraser Alexander Globally, roughly 13 billion tons of tailings are added to surface storage facilities every single year. Traditional reprocessing models focus almost exclusively on extracting hidden grams-per-ton of residual primary minerals, meaning that 99% of that total waste volume goes right back o...

Guest: Wiehan, Metallurgist & Mineral Processing Specialist (Maelgwyn Mineral Services) Cyanide is the undeniable backbone of global gold extraction, yet its reputation often sparks intense debate and misunderstanding. In this episode of The Mining Pulse, we strip away the fear and look strictly at the data, running a full operational diagnostic on how this powerful chemical is managed safely and...

Guest: James Campbell, Managing Director of Botswana Diamonds How does a diamond deposit go from being a "marginal" prospect to a source of the world's most valuable stones? In this episode of The Mining Pulse, we run the diagnostics on Karowe Mine. We are joined once again by James Campbell, who was at the heart of the team that recognized the true potential of the AK6 kimberlite when others were...

Guests: Craig Walter & Phildre Lotter (Fraser Alexander NextGen) Tailings are often treated as the "magic table" of mining—waste goes in, and the industry hopes it disappears. But when that "table" fails, the impact on communities and the environment is devastating. In this episode of The Mining Pulse, we sit down with Craig Walter and Phildre Lotta from Fraser Alexander to strip back the technica...

Guest: JJ Messner, Representative for the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) How does the "heartbeat" of an African mine reach the global market? In this episode of The Mining Pulse, we run diagnostics on the growing disconnect between global purchasers and upstream mineral producers. We sit down with JJ from IRMA to unpack how responsible sourcing standards are becoming the new ba...

Is your mine truly "digitalized," or just "automated"? In this episode of The Mining Pulse, we run a diagnostic on the current state of mining technology. We sit down with PJ Peters, founder of DigiRock Innovations, to cut through the marketing fluff surrounding the Fourth Industrial Revolution and get to what actually works on the ground. PJ brings a unique "boots-on-the-ground" perspective—start...

What does an Australian airline pilot do when a medical ailment ends a 30-year flying career? If you’re Peter and Damian from CAZ Minerals, you head to the remote river mouths of Mozambique to look for seafood—and stumble upon a world-class mineral deposit instead. In this episode of The Mining Pulse, we take the temperature of one of the most adventurous exploration stories we’ve ever heard. We m...

Guest: James Campbell, Managing Director of Botswana Minerals plc. The diamond industry was forged under pressure, but right now the entire sector is feeling a different kind of squeeze. In this episode of The Mining Pulse, we run a full diagnostic on the "heartbeat" of African diamonds with one of the world's most respected experts, James Campbell. With over three decades of experience, spanning...

In this inaugural episode, hosts James and Graeme pull back the curtain on why The Mining Pulse was created and how it aims to transform the way we view African mining intelligence. Mining is "incredibly relational," yet the industry is often starved of the human context behind the data. James and Graeme discuss the mission of the show: to provide a "critical readout" for the sector by humanizing...