Responsible Raw Materials Podcast

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....

What happens when a geologist’s daughter grows up, ignores the rocks, and then finds herself championing the very industry she once overlooked?  In this episode, Susie - affectionately known as “Minerals Mum” - joins us to explore her journey from product design and teaching into the world of minerals, geology and extractives. Growing up in Cornwall with a geologist for a dad, Susie was surrounded...

How can better information help us keep critical raw materials in circulation? In this episode, Sarah speaks with Jessica Green, an expert in traceability, circularity and digital product passports, about the role of data in building a more circular economy.  Jessica explains why circularity is about much more than recycling, and why products need to be designed with repair, reuse, remanufacturing...

Platinum Group Metals and the 100% Recycled Myth, with Emma Schofield. Emma Schofield is a chemist who spent 22 years in the platinum group metals (PGM) industry at Johnson Matthey, the world's largest secondary refiner. A former inorganic chemistry lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, she found her way into industry by reading the labels on lab bottles. Her work spanned catalyst chemistry, new...

Liv Carroll is a geologist and mining transformation specialist whose career spans the UK minerals industry, mineral exploration in Turkey and a decade using data and AI to transform mining and metals companies. The spark came at nine, when the Gaia Atlas of Planet Management showed her the scale of global resource use, later leading her to choose geology over medicine. She now runs her own adviso...

What does social conflict actually cost a mining company - not in reputation, but in dollars? Sarah is joined by Doron Tadmor, who recently completed his PhD studying how mining companies navigate stakeholder and political risk with indigenous communities. The conversation centres on Doron's paper in Resources Policy , which examined 28 large-scale mining projects in Peru and identified $31.9 bill...

Burak Kaplanoglu was doing sustainability work long before the word was fashionable, beginning with a concern for the people on site. Born in Istanbul and in the UK since 1995, he has built his career on some of the world’s largest capital projects, from the London 2012 Olympics to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar and Expo 2020. Two years ago he left a global consultancy to set up on his own as directo...

We recycle steel. We're rather good at it. But recycling isn't the same as reuse, and that gap is quietly costing us.  In the latest episode of the Responsible Raw Materials podcast, engineer Gareth Byatt makes the case with a simple question: can a steel beam simply remain a steel beam? Today, when a building comes down, we crush much of it, downcycling steel into low-grade rebar and burying valu...

What Happens to a Smart Meter After It Leaves Your Wall Helen Woodcock came to sustainability through risk management, and a refusal to accept that anything is simply the way it works. Over a career in energy services, she worked inside a major UK organisation installing smart meters, heat pumps and other household energy technology, responsible for their whole life cycle. She now works independen...

Mine Closure and the True Cost of Metals Mine closure is one of the biggest unsolved challenges in responsible mining, and Peter Harvey has spent the last seven years at the heart of it. His route was unusual: environmental science, then outdoor education for young people excluded from school (companies he still directs), a master's in occupational psychology, and a decade enabling mineral explora...

Why Tax Is the Most Powerful Word in Mining  Tim Law is a chartered accountant and tax expert who spent nearly two decades in corporate tax teams, twelve of them inside a major mining company. What makes him worth hearing is where that path led - from tax returns to the murkier questions of who owns, controls and benefits from the world's mineral wealth.  His argument starts somewhere unexpected:...

Gas, The Strait of Hormuz and the Raw Materials Geopolitical Landscape of the Middle East  Michael Barron is a Middle East political risk specialist who came to natural resources by an unusual route. He studied Arabic, worked in consultancy, then moved into the oil and gas industry - a background that lets him read a gas field and a government with equal fluency. He is also the author of The Gaza...

David Strang: Challenging Everything the Industry Takes for Granted  David Strang has had an unusual route into mining leadership. A Glaswegian raised in a South African mining town, he studied applied earth sciences at Stanford on an athletics scholarship, ran for Great Britain at the 1996 Olympics, then learned company-building under Ross Beaty at Lumina Copper - a portfolio eventually acquired ...

Melody McNeil is an agriculture and natural resource economist who has spent decades working with USAID and Catholic Relief Services across East and Central Africa, Afghanistan, and South Sudan - not inside mining companies, but alongside them, and who has seen first-hand what happens when above-ground conditions are treated as an afterthought.   The conversation centres on a deceptively simple qu...

John Thompson is a geoscientist who spent five decades deliberately moving between industry and academia. After studying geology at Oxford, he went on to explore for magmatic sulphides in Norway and Maine, spend four years in Australia, found the Mineral Deposit Research Unit at UBC, and serve as Chief Geoscientist and VP of Technology at Teck. The thread running through John's career is something...

Anne Thompson is a geologist, mineralogist, and self-described snake that sheds its skin. Over four decades she has worked as an exploration field geologist in Australia and the Southwest Pacific, built and sold an applied mineralogy consulting company, helped produce the Atlas of Alteration, and served on the council of the Society of Economic Geologists. She also hosts her own podcast, Discovery...

In this episode, we sit down with Professor Caroline Tiddy, Chief Scientific Officer at MinEx CRC and Associate Professor of Geosciences at Adelaide University.  From her beginnings in rural Australia to an unconventional pathway through chemistry and geology, Caroline shares how she found her niche in geochemistry, and why she initially resisted economic geology altogether. Reflecting on pivotal...

What if the key to sustainable metals, minerals, and nutrient recovery has been growing in front of us all along? In this episode of Responsible Raw Materials, Professor Caitlin Byrt and Dr Samantha McGaughey from the Australian National University reveal how plant biology is inspiring breakthrough technologies that can extract critical resources from industrial and urban waste. From salt‑tolerant...

From the Arctic tundra of northern Quebec to the laboratories and boardrooms shaping the future of critical minerals, Dr Pim van Geffen’s career has been driven by curiosity, and a passion for understanding the materials that underpin modern society. In this episode of the  Responsible Raw Materials   podcast, Pim shares the experiences that sparked and sustained his fascination with geology and g...

This episode of  Responsible Raw Materials  explores what happens when psychology meets geochemistry. Joining us is Dutch psychologist and behavioural scientist Prof. Geertje Schuitema whose career has spanned research into electric vehicle adoption, smart energy technologies, and, more recently, the societal challenges surrounding critical raw materials.  From tackling ‘range anxiety’ in the earl...

In this episode, Sarah Gordon speaks with sustainability expert John Howchin about the powerful role finance plays in shaping the future of mining and raw materials. With decades of experience working at the intersection of investment and sustainability, John reflects on how the real leverage for change lies not just with operators, but with the owners of capital.   From the early days of ESG and...

In this episode, we sit down with Madhurii Sarkar Amoda, a leading voice in community development, stakeholder engagement, and sustainable mining practices in Nigeria.  From growing up in Lagos to navigating the cultural complexities of rural mining communities, Madhurii shares her remarkable journey into the mining sector and the lessons she’s learned building trust between corporations, governme...

In this episode, we speak with Louise, an environmental and social leader in mining, about her journey from growing up in an Australian coal community to working across 50+ countries - and ultimately finding her place in the raw materials sector. Driven by a desire to create real-world impact, she shares why she moved from development and consultancy into operations, joining Thor Explorations as i...

In this episode, Sarah Gordon speaks with Laura Mallabone, Regional Director of Satarla, South Africa, and chemical engineer turned risk and sustainability specialist, about the critical role of risk management in shaping responsible mining. From her early career in engineering and insurance to working within major mining companies, Laura shares how her perspective evolved - and why integrating ri...

In this episode, Sarah Gordon speak with Josephine Weston about the future of mining, sustainability, and the energy transition. Originally from Perth, Jo shares her journey into environmental engineering and discusses the growing importance of mine rehabilitation, cultural engagement, and collaborative decision-making across the mining sector. We also explore the Capital Matters initiative - a pr...