This week’s episode features Pat Risner, President of South32 Hermosa, in conversation with host Adrian Pocobelli about the company’s Hermosa project in Arizona. Risner discusses how the project has benefited from the U.S. FAST-41 permitting framework, South32’s approach to earning and maintaining its social licence to operate, and the role automation will play in the mine’s development. He also examines the challenges posed by cost inflation and how rising costs are influencing the project’s economics and long-term planning. All this and more with host Adrian Pocobelli. “Rattlesnake Railroad”, “Big Western Sky”, “Western Adventure” and “Battle on the Western Frontier” by Brett Van Donsel (⁠www.incompetech.com⁠). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License ⁠creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0⁠ Apple Podcasts:⁠ https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-northern-miner-podcast/id1099281201⁠ Spotify:⁠ https://open.spotify.com/show/78lyjMTRlRwZxQwz2fwQ4K⁠ YouTube:⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernMiner⁠ Soundcloud:⁠ https://soundcloud.com/northern-miner

South32's Pat Risner on FAST-41, social license and mining in the USA

The Northern Miner Podcast

I call it cognitive dissonance. How do you rectify these stories? Help me out, dear listener. It is another week. Hello and welcome to The Northern Miner Podcast. My name's Adrian Pocobelli. I need your help.

So, here is the story. Australia's only manganese smelter to close, administrators say. This is ReutersviaMining.com. So, this is one story. And just to give you a quick summary of it, Australia's only manganese smelter, the Liberty Bell smelter in Tasmania, will close immediately.

After a proposed sale fell through, administrators said on Thursday, the smelter, formerly owned by British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance, entered voluntary administration in March after suspending operations mid-last year. And we have a quote from Administrator EY, who said in a statement, quote,

In the absence of both a commercially viable transaction and the funding required to continue operations, the administrators have made the difficult decision to commence the orderly closure of the business with immediate effect, end quote. GFG did not immediately return a request for comment.

The closure follows a period of disruption for the smelter, which had cited adverse market conditions and ore supply problems linked to cyclone-related setbacks at key supplier South 32's Groot Alant Mining Company, or Jemco. Now, on that note, very pleased to mention that this episode we have South 32 Hermosa president Pat Reisner.

Now, South 32 Hermosa is the U.S. wing of South 32, and they just had a big project fast-tracked using Fast 41. They basically were the first to do it. So I asked Pat Reisner all about that, and what can be learned? As it does sound like it moved quite fast, so perhaps some lessons to be learned there extended. In-depth interview with Pat Reisner coming up this episode. Back to our article.

South32's Pat Risner on FAST-41, social license and mining in the USA

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

South32's Pat Risner on FAST-41, social license and mining in the USA

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.