All One River GIS

This is a cyber-blurb that has probably been circulating the Internet for over a year, though I just got it yesterday sent from my Newly-Retired-X-Vietnam-War-Vet-Divorced-Ojibwe-CIA/DEA-Career-Navy-Seal-Uncle. It’s hard for him to be retired after all that but at least we can correspond regularly now. He sent these excerpts from Lee Iacocca’s book, “Where have all the Leaders Gone,” Simon & Schuster, April, 2007. Though the book is a year old, it hits on topics that run through my little noggin jez about every morning during my commute to work.

 The 82 year old (then) Iacocca writes:

 Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.”

Iacocca says:

“Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It’s easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else’s kids off to war when you’ve never seen a battlefield yourself. It’s another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It’s all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn’t safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day—and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero.

That was George Bush’s moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he’d regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq—a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn’t listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn’t scare the crap out of you, I don’t know what will.

A Hell of a Mess

So here’s where we stand. We’re immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We’re running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We’re losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you’ve got to ask: “Where have all the leaders gone?” Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We’ve spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone’s hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn’t happen again. Now, that’s just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you’re going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when “the Big Three” referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen—and more important, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn’t elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don’t you guys show some spine for a change?

Had Enough?

Hey, I’m not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I’m trying to light a fire. I’m speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America. In my lifetime I’ve had the privilege of living through some of America’s greatest moments. I’ve also experienced some of our worst crises—the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I’ve learned one thing, it’s this: You don’t get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it’s building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That’s the challenge I’m raising in this book. It’s a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It’s not too late, but it’s getting pretty close. So let’s shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let’s tell ‘em all we’ve had enough.”

OK, I got it. Nice. I am impressed by anyone who can capture their passion with eloquence and present it in a voice that is not whining and pedantic. Only issue with Iacocca is his bias based on his seat of power in the automotive industry. The mining industry has been fighting a battle way before 911 to maintain a leading role in global economics. We’ve been focused on trying to maintain our country’s competitive edge and the energy crisis long before gasoline hit $4.00 a gallon. In short, all I’m saying is we in the mining industry understand.

However, I have a rather dour personal opinion: I don’t trust or believe people who are political candidates for anything. It doesn’t seem that anyone with a level state of mind would run for a public office. By that, regardless of the patriotic motivation or perhaps personal responsibility to participate in an elected office, I know first hand that the people who hold public positions, even on a county level, become exposed to all kinds of ridiculous accusations, contrived allegations, and personal attacks. This circus-like presentation of our leaders focuses on an absurd element of fascination that people support in our news industry for entertainment. Anyone who even considers running in a presidential campaign nowadays has got to have something unbalanced with their personal values to start.

The Presidency is a job. It shouldn’t be a popularity contest. The job is advertised. It’s a term-position with benefits. Must be willing to relocate. Travel required. All applicants please submit a resume to our Personnel Director. (We need a Personnel Director.) I want the resumes weeded out based on qualifications. Then, I want to know what the credentials are. What jobs have they held? What were the reasons for leaving? Have they ever been fired? Why? What school did they go to? Who paid for it? What classes did they take? Did they ever take a class in economics? World history? Study law? What were their grades? What hobbies or interests do they have? What organizations do they belong to? Who are their references? Any awards? Any higher education? Volunteer work? Ever do civil work before? Social programs? Have any experience with the sick? Elderly? Poor? Study any foreign language? Any arts? Ever been in trouble before? Really bad situation before? Tell me about it. How did you handle it?

Yeah, those are a lot of incredible accomplishments to look for in a candidate but this is for the presidency. Those criteria will likely filter out the younger candidates, but not necessarily. We are looking for the most dynamic, best qualified individual in the whole country.

Start there. Then, I want public interviews. Interactive. We created an electoral college to vote for us when we were a nation of remote populations with no feasible means of organizing such a succinct communication as a direct national vote. So, we elect guys to vote in our best interest. Get rid of that. Let’s all vote directly for whom we want. Let’s extend the vote to 10 days rather than one day so everyone can get access to the Internet or mail a voucehr and believe me – I work remotely and in other countries all over the world and I have been able to arrange to vote remotely no matter where I am. Even Ma and Pa Kettle would be able to get in their old farm pickup and drive to the local library to use the internet and vote in that time frame. Unique user ID, password protected, all that jazz. The obstacles to this idea? Approach them as they come up. I don’t believe in letting hypothetical obstacles stop me from formulating an initial plan. That is what I call “a starting point”. We start there.

Everyone gets to vote for whomever they want to. Yeah that will diffuse the vote, but we have computers to sort that now. If someone has made such a national reputation (or campaigned) to the point that maybe most of the people in the nation voted for them, then hey – the system works. No, I don’t believe the nation is composed of menial idiots. Maybe a lot of us are not as educated as we should be on many topics but there are a lot of people in charge of making the decisions that are totally incompetent as well. No one should be in charge of my vote for president. Let’s all vote.

Here is a list of my terrible political opinions based on personal experience: 

• Kennedy probably slept with girls other than his wife while he was president.
• The three Roosevelts (Ted, Franklin, and Eleanor) seem to have been very impressive people. 
• George Washington is a suspicious character in my book. 
• LBJ inherited a hurricane in Vietnam and didn’t address that very well either. 
• Probably every president leading up to and including Nixon flexed a few diabolical muscles to get in office — Nixon got caught. 
• Ford was a vice president. Be very careful who we hire for that job, too. (Yeah, I know the Nixon-Agnew-Ford connection was out of our hands, but we still need to take our VPs seriously. Maybe that’s another job for our Personnel Director? Hmmm…..) 
• Reagan was a scary guy who actually bluffed the Russians into bankruptcy, which initiated thawing of the cold war. All of those threats are still there and new players have yet to rear their ugly heads. 
• Carter was once attacked by a rabbit in his canoe. Does anyone but me remember that???? 
• Old Man Bush had a war that I entirely missed while I was logging core in Mexico – I didn’t even know we were at war and when I got home everyone was ENTHRALLED with S.C.U.D. missiles. 
• Clinton was the only president who could even sustain a sex life since Kennedy and we crucified him over it. 
• Little Bush is so typical of guys with his syndrome, it’s a wonder he isn’t an exploration manager for Newmont.

I believe all of these persons were / are a nut in some aspect, based mostly on their desire to be a president in the first place. I also believe that each one of these nuts really and truly made an attempt to be a good president. They each thought they were doing a good job in the realm of making political decisions they thought were for the good of our country. That’s why we need to screen them before they get elected. 

SUMMARY: I’m not looking for Iacocca’s Great Leader. I’d be happy to hire the most competent, best qualified person for the job based on their credentials. That person may not be a hero. They might simply be  good at their job.

I just spent a weekend working under cover as a normal person. By that, I mean I wore a dress, braided my hair, and sat in a chair at a booth during a festival to sell my artwork and books. The venue was a kayaking race and festival on the Arkansas River in Salida. At such an event, it would be disastrous to let on that I work in mining. At least, that has been my experience when outside my personal circle of river-running, kayaking, fishing, rafting, mining friends. 

It’s easy to avoid the tender topic of mining in Colorado when you have books and art in your booth until the address of Victor, Colorado comes up.

“Where’s Victor?” nice people ask when reading my business card.

“Near Cripple Creek,” I answer, though I can tell that is a vague black hole in geography to some.

“What do you do there?” a more pointed question to avoid.

“I don’t live there anymore. That’s where I keep my business post office.” I answer.

“Why there?”

At this point, the truth is nearly inevitable and I feel the compulsive urge to blurt out, ‘I WORK IN THE MINING INDUSTRY – I MINE – I’M A MINER!!!!!’ like a mad woman possessed with the truth. By then, the customer has usually decided I am a kook and is ready to move on. That’s the way it is when you’re a booth babe.

I had a rather nice discovery while at the booth, though. I knew that the region had been an agricultural and railroading center with a rather dour economy prior to the latest surge in real-estate development and river-running enthusiasm. At FibArk, the ranchers were now mingling with the river rats walking that kind of slow, meander from left to right making their way down the aisle between booths. The river people walk fast, kind of stomping and wear, well, scant clothes. The ranchers wear, well, cowboy clothes. The latter were the people I targeted for conversation. Ranchers like to be asked things like,

“How long have you lived here? Are you retired? Do you have grandkids? Do you ride horses? What kind of cows do you raise? Is the rain good this year for hay?” Things like that. For some odd reason ranchers like to yell the answers at you, too.

“WE BEEN HERE 27 YEARS!!!!!!!!!! DON’T RAISE NO COWS NO MORE!!!!!!!!!!! DON’T RIDE NO HORSES NO MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT ENUFF RAIN THIS YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” etc.

My nicest discovery came early in the morning on the last day of the show. Most of the other booth people don’t stir quite so early in the morning (feeding elephants, I suppose) so I am usually alone. I had already set up my booth and was walking down to the river to sit a while and wait for the sun to climb high enough to warm my awning. On my way to the bank I saw a very elderly man holding on to the perimeter barricades down by the river. He was kind of tippy.

“Mornin’, ” I said.

“Mornin’, ” he answered. He was a dapper looking guy, nicely dressed, blue eyes, safari-style hat.

“That’s a nice hat,” I told him.

 ”Why thank you. My daughter bought that for me.” I think his eye twinkled. I melt when old guys’ eyes twinkle at me.

 ”Are you a rancher?” I asked him.

 ”No, I’m a retired miner.” He answered. “I worked at mines near here all my life until I retired thirty years ago.”

I put my arm through his and we made our way back to my booth while Lloyd told me all about drilling, blasting and mucking in his underground mining days near Salida at Chalk Creek and Monarch. Our mining heritage (and future) is intact.

“Hi Michele. I’m working on an ore model and is it ever complex! Anyway, I’m thinking about producing a new table for Cu-equivalent grades. I was thinking about creating a field in the assay table with a formula to calculate the equivalents based on fluctuating metal prices. Got any ideas?”

That’s from my friend, Queen of Excel. What’s she’s talking about is inserting a formula into Excel so that the Cu-values are automatically changed corresponding to the daily market value she enters into the spreadsheet. Got me to thinking about GIS and the mining industry. We really don’t utilize our GIS software very much for the abilities that it offers — dynamic changes corresponding to non-static data for example, like a changing market value.

GIS software “looks at” other data and makes a visual map. That’s mostly what we use it for in mining. One of the most dynamic abilities of using GIS is to point or look at data that changes. Example is a spreadsheet of drill holes, including proposed holes. Proposed holes probably have (at the least) an easting, northing, a unique ID, and maybe that’s it. A GIS map will show the proposed holes locations as, say, little black crosses. Then, when the pad is built a technician enters some code into the spreadsheet that shows that task has been completed and the little black cross would change to a little blue cross. Then, when a rig gets on the pad and starts drilling, another person enters that code for that status and the symbol changes from whatever a blue cross to a green drill hole symbol. Then, as the hole is completed another code is entered into the same spreadsheet and so on including status of when the surveyor arrives, etc. etc. following the data as the samples get sent to lab and results come back – the color or symbol changes automatically. This is how GIS is usually used in mining.

Point being: no one actually edits or changes a GIS map – once the defaults have been created the GIS software makes the visual changes to correspond to changes in the status of the hole. So, a boss doesn’t need to track down a geo to ask him what the status is – he can look at the map on his computer as it changes instantaneously.

I wonder if the same thing could happen if the assay values in a spreadsheet were pointed to the daily market value? You could get a dynamic map (sections, ideally) that would change as the market went up or down. Would you want that? Every time you went to digitize a section – the values would change slightly. BUT – if the mining modeling software automatically made a wireframe to correspond to intercepts down hole (cut-off grades for example), then you could let a computer do the work. You would see your ore body swell (and shrink) as prices fluctuated.

Reply from a geostatistician I know (”geostatics” George calls them) about this idea of using a dynamic link to non-static data using GIS:

“I don’t think it’s a good idea at the database level when there is no volume or tonnage assigned anyway. Maybe it would be useful in ore control if you’re feeding a mill. Usually, we (geostatics) use long term averages so the daily changes in market value are useless. I think it would cause a lot of headaches to have a changing wireframe or ore body that fluctuates. “

Just a thought (I’m not gonna do it) but, what if? That’s what I like about my pal. She has these creative thoughts all the time like, what if you didn’t have to drill? What if you could just laser a beam to intercept programmed values, like petroleum tools do downhole for resistivity, porosity, density and you could at least pick tops or find water without any surface disturbance until you defined an area of interest. What if that was possible? And so on.

There is a reason I haven’t written a funny blog in a while. I’ve become obsessed with writing, “The Igneous Rocks of Tameapa – an exploration adventure story”, which is being published by InfoMine as an ongoing series of PDF chapters. I have submitted 4 chapters in cliff hanger type of short stories, all of which will eventually lead full-circle to a resolution (and a sequel.)

I first became possessed by this story while logging core in Tameapa. The tuba player is real, the mad professor is real, the dog with a bow tie is real, in a creative literary-license sort of way. I’m not saying who or what or when inspired the characters or plot, but it practically came to me in a vision – the plot line, the characters, the events, the twists, even the ending. I can’t write it fast enough. The story is in my head and I know how it ends and can’t even explain it orally fast enough. Some of the elements of the story happen out of sequence and I capture them that way, trying to keep them organized by chapter number. The plot travels through time and all over the world. One underlying element in common is – MINING.

Since it is an exploration adventure, the story is chock full of technical jargon, which automatically limits it from ever flying in the public market but I think the InfoMine reader can handle it (possibly with a geologic dictionary at hand). The terminology is geologic. The characters are the wealth of the story and the situation is core logging in Sinaloa, Mexico. Each chapter is left open-ended with a ripe bit of colorful flavor. The language is colorful too (a few bad words here and there) and the events are slightly crazy (just like a real core logging job).

I have five main characters developed leading to the misadventures of Doc and Rene. Doc is an old professor who runs the Mobile Rock Identification Lab (M.R.I.L.), which is a converted ice cream truck. Rene is a bawdy 46-year old lady geo who works all over the world and makes trouble wherever she goes. Antonio is a handsome, crazy tuba player who was disfigured in an electrical accident a the mine in Cananea and who lives in a remote village where Rene logs core to hide from his past. Guillianna “Guilly” Arcalia de la Pera de Esperanza is a sexy female bandit with a vengeance against mines. Gerberto “Herbie” is a blind Mexican geologist. These characters meet up in Tameapa before the real action begins – a plot with bombs, kidnapping, a clever wonder dog, and even BATS.

This adventure story could be submitted as often as a weekly article of about 1000 words. I did this once before for a paper in Summit County, making an ongoing story with illustrations for Belinda Smegler — Trailer Trash Queen of Cripple Creek and her cooking show, none of which was true but the readers thought she was a real person. I used to get letters addressed to Belinda through the paper. The thing is, I keep having to actually work and therein lies the longevity to the story. I keep collecting more material as I go to new sites and continue my personal rock identification adventures.

And THAT is where I have been. Check it out!!!

The following announcement was released today by Stuart A. Sanderson, President of the Colorado Mining Association:

“Today, the Colorado House of Representatives Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee voted to postpone indefinitely (kill) House Bill 08-1165.  The sponsors of the amendment had agreed to limit the scope of the bill to amending the prospecting provisions only and, at today’s hearing, stated that they were removing the provisions authorizing local governments to veto or condition mining projects because county authority in this area was already substantial. 

Following discussion and debate, the committee ultimately decided to kill the bill by a 7-6 vote.  Voting in favor of the motion to PI the bill were Reps. McKinley, Hodge, McNulty, Sonnenberg, Rose, Gardner, and Looper.  Because the committee killed the entire bill, it is likely that legislation will be introduced in the Senate, however, to amend the current requirements governing the confidentiality of notices of intent to conduct prospecting.   Although there are no absolute guarantees, we believe that the bill will be limited to prospecting but will keep you apprised of further developments.  

In offering to remove all but the prospecting provisions, the sponsors cited authority that already exists under the Colorado Land Use Act, the Colorado Land Use Control and Enabling Act, and the 1041 powers.  The sponsors also assured the committee of their intention to limit floor consideration to prospecting only, and not to reintroduce the provisions on local control.  They would also resist such amendments if offered. 

I wish to thank Dianna Orf and the other industry lobbyists and representatives who were instrumental in making committee members aware of our concerns about this legislation. Thanks are also due to the counties and county organizations who wrote letters in opposition to the bill - Aron Diaz, Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado, Reeves Brown, Club 20, the folks at Action 22, Moffat and Teller Counties, along with Mesa county commissioner Steve Aquafresca.  Equally important, I also wish to thank the CMA membership and those who participated in our standing committees; they responded to our call and spoke up in one united voice in opposition to the bill and in support of responsible mining.

We will now turn our attention to House Bill 1161 (which has passed the House and will be considered by a Senate committee in the near future) and on any prospecting bill.  There is much work remaining to be done.  CMA hopes to work cooperatively with our elected representatives in fashioning provisions that will address any legitimate environmental and citizen concerns, while making sure that Colorado law continues to provide for the orderly development of the state’s mineral resources.   A news release is attached.  I look forward to working with all of you during the remainder of this session.”

Stuart A. Sanderson

President

Colorado Mining Association

216 16th Street, Suite 1250

Denver, CO 80202

303/575-9199, fax 575-9194

This news comes on the heels of an anti-mining movement initiated by private groups up near Ft. Collins to try and block an in-situ uranium project proposed in Weld County. The bill was partially ill-written with redundancies that conflicted with current state law.