Louis Hissink is drilling at Thundelarra Exploration’s Lamboo project located about 40 KM WSW of Halls Creek in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. His focus is exploration for platinum and nickel.
Louis sent the following note:
“The wet season is on us and the usual climatic signs have appeared – with rain already falling in some of the more remote areas. Another two months of the ‘build-up’ and if Halls Creek gets a good solid drenching from a cyclonic depression over the wet season, then it might replenish the underground water acquifer we the town relies on for its water supply.
Seems the greenies and other do-gooders have put paid to any notion of building a small dam nearby for water catchment solutions. [Indeed, existing dams are being busted in parts of rural and regional Western Australia, click here for previous blog post on the issue.].
Oh there is a drought alright, but it’s in the state parliaments where a serious drought of commonsense is evident. I can’t write what the Western Australian Water Authority thinks of the Environment Protection Agency and its fellow travellers.
Lots of feral horses in the area, and dying from a lack of feed and water – sad to see, but that is reality up here.
Louis is the one on the right.The drilling rig is a small Reverse Circulation (RC) machine which can bore holes to about 150 metres depth.
Principal drilling method uses a down-hole hammer that pulverises the rock into smaller bits, including dust, using high power air compressors. The sample from the hammer is pushed up the inside of the rod string (hence the term
reverse-circulation) through the inner pipes then via a sample hose into a sampling cyclone where equal volume samples (nominally 1 metre length times the hole area) are collected. These 1 metre samples are then split into 2 fractions,via a Jones splitter in which an aliquot of the 1 metre sample is collected for initial chemical analysis in a laboratory. The remainder of the sample is left in a green plastic mining bag next to the drilled hole for further work. Field assistants later take rock chip samples from each metre sample by seiving through a standard household kitchen sieve and stored in purpose built chip trays – durable plastic things with 20 small compartments.These chips are studied by the geologist to record the rocks identified down the drilled hole and displayed as a geological log.
Constant volume samples are collected to eliminate the “sample-volume-variance” phenomena when dealing with geological samples, since the variation of any measurement of sample chemical composition depends on the volume of material collected. Unlike social science statistics in which the sample support is an individual human, or in the general physical sciences where objects such as billiard balls, coins, or other discrete objects, is the sample support and from which we note that N, the number of samples, is always an integer value, such objects do not exist in geology or the earth sciences and hence special emphasis is directed to ensuring that the sample-support is maintained, here by ensuring constant volume samples.
Mineral exploration generally involves developing hypotheses about where mineral deposits might be located in the accessible parts of the earth’s crust, and initially tested by collected many inexpensive geochemical soil samples, and again special emphasis is directed to ensuring that sample-support is maintained, again by collecting equal volume samples of soil.
Chemical analysis of these samples are done and the data analysed geomathematically. Usually the samples are reported as metal assays as parts per million or billion, depending on the element, and are “intensive” variables. Because the sample support of data set is uniform, sample-volume-variance issues, as well as the pitfalls of applying statistical analyses to intensive variables are avoided, and that is another issue which won’t be described here.”
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Thanks for sending in the photograph and note.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Louis, “rock doctering” is a noble profession. I hope the 3D picture you build of what is under the ground is a pretty sight.
Siltstone,
Thanks for your kind words – I sure hope so too that it becomes a pretty sight :-)!
Disgraceful – dust pollution, flattened endangered Spinifex plants and obviously salinity from the rig has killed the trees in the background. The figure back turned trying desperately to turn off the machine which has gone berserk. The figure facing us (arms folded and something to hide) just back from dumping sump oil in a creek.
Luke,
I think the gleaming white hat may be an attempt to increase albedo and so slow catastrophic cerebral warming. Also, wait … range 200m, 12 o’clock, small dark object … could it be a re-cycled frozen possum planted by some cunning greenie? I think Louis should stop raping Gaiea with his phallic rig. He might be releasing clouds of lethal radon gas, and causing earthquakes in Hawaii.
ah-ha, so that thar is one a them high pressure resource machine doovalackies that forces up interest rates, eh? Methink that suspicious charackta is hidin blood diamonds in ‘is pockets.
These are the forearms of a firebrand blogger.
Having lived in the East Kimberley and the Northern Tanami, I know their timeless beauty.
I can’t imagine the contrast with the down-hole hammer, but then again, Louis is compensated for his provison of professional services in these outer limits and I wonder if he is paid enough.
No doubt there exists a global demand for platinum and nickel, but what price is paid for Louis to de-frock Australia’s mineral secrets, as it were?
Hi Jen,
Does this mean we can look forward to Louis’ vitally important holiday reports as well?
Crikey!, the idea of seeing Hissink in his speedos has quite put me off my lunch.
Ironic isn’t it.
The mining industry produces the raw materials for our modern civilisation including that modern technological marvel the internet and now its being used to against us.
Without it Luke and his merry morons, writing in this thread, would not have the means to vilify their opponents behind noms des plumes. Can you imagine them attempting to do so with smoke signals or tom-tom drums, (assuming that in their primitive state they would had developed such innovative technologies).
And its likely they would also not have been born, given that in their world there would not be the marvels of modern medicine of today. More likely that their parents would have left to die in the wilderness as being excess to necessity when living at the subsistence level that the Lukesians dream of.
It all boils down to benefiting from the tools of modern civilisation but condemning those who supply it – nothing but rank hypocrisy.
Of course if they actually practised what they preached, then they would not be posting here.
So any flak I get must be my own fault as a member of the mining industry. Sort of being hoist by my own petard as it were.
Louis hasn’t been the same since that drill bit wacked him in 76 – this is why he’s wearing his hard hat now. Glad to see he’s finding the platinum to put in the fuel cells of the new hydrogen vehicles – perhaps his backers know something he doesn’t.
P.S. Louis – your fly is undone.
Louis, do you run that thing 24/7, or do you get some quiet time out there, under that huge sky?
When you get a chance, perhaps you could come down this way for a bit.
May be you could find some water, so our illustrious leader can wet the tonsils of his adoring subjects.
Look you, Louis boyo, don’t preach about mining. We Welsh mined silver for the Romans and coal for the English, while your ancestors were munching tulips. All we got in the end was unemployment, silicosis and slag heaps. Remember Aberfan? If not, look it up on the web. Now Welsh people are using brain instead of brawn, for example in biotechnology. Cymru ymlaen …
Davey they were actually developing the world’s 1st futures markets in rare tulip bulbs and investing the proceeds in coastal alchemy. Tools of modern civilisation indeed. Thankye Louis & clan for single-handedly delivering us heathens unto civilised ways. Oh, and for inventing apartheid too.
C’est Ca
Alors Louis, dans l’avenir, n’oubliez pas qu’on prend plus de mouches avec du miel qu’avec du vinaigre.
And so Davy Gam esq. treats Jennifer’s readers as illitrate common muck with his pompous linguistic arrogance.
It just occurred to me that the political left always have considered themselves a ‘superior’ class, patronising the mob as something not quite up to the standards.
Here it’s a double banger – a patronising French arrogance coupled with a pretentious “Esq.” attached to probably a noms des plumes.
Louis,
A few facts. I am, politically, moderately right of centre. My use of French was in response to your French comment. As a claimed student of Shakespeare, you should look up Davey Gam Esq., in connection with the Battle of Agincourt. He was my umpteenth great-grandfather, and I am sure he would not mind my using his name. Finally, the term “nom de plume” is only pseudo-French, invented by the English. Maybe it has a plural, but not the one you use. Try to get these things right, or I will assume that you are trained rather than educated.
Davey esq. (mate) you blew it – you should have tried:
Voulez-vous coucher chez avec moi ce soir
Luc mon ami,
Avec Louis? Quelle horreur! He is ze worst since Louis ze First (apologies to Tom Lehrer)
Maaatee – gets lonely up there at Halls Ck.
my I request some brosure of drill rig for 60 m depth, you can send the information to the address above, tks ……….. best regards