Greenfields Research is the trading name of independent mining economist, John P. Sykes. This blog contains some of our latest research papers and just general news from the industry.
Earlier in the year, in our Strictly Boardroom column, we considered alternatives to the challenge of vertical integration in the minerals industry. In some commodity industries, such as gold, copper, and nickel sulphides, the majority of the value of the final 'metal' product flows back through to the miner - with smelters, refiners, traders and others further downstream making thin… Continue Reading →
Never ones to miss a passing bandwagon, earlier in the year we wrote a Strictly Boardroom column on digital currencies. As this was not an obvious area of our expertise we recruited some help from Dr Dick Baur - a finance expert focused on markets, who has written extensively on the machinations of the gold and bitcoin markets. Whilst recognising… Continue Reading →
For the first Strictly Boardroom article of this year we looked at organisational culture and minerals exploration - specifically the need for 'fringe culture'. Managing a fringe group within a standard, even good, corporate culture, say one dominated by integrity, respect, family, transparency, and values, can be difficult. That's not to say that some explorers do not value some of… Continue Reading →
For the final Strictly Boardroom article of 2017 we pondered whether taking on tasks classified as 'labours of love' (which describes much of our work) is worth it? We drew some inspiration from psychologist Daniel Kahneman, management theorist Elliot Jaques, philosopher Thomas Kuhn, and economists Tim Harford and John Kay. Our thoughts and conclusions are still available to MiningNews.net subscribers… Continue Reading →
