Welcome to RSC’s March Newsletter!

I feel a lot better. I just got back from the Asia Mining Conference and it was great to once again hear us all convincing each other how great we are and that things really aren’t that bad. Maybe I don’t even go to these events anymore to sell our business but rather to feel better by looking at presentations with curves that seem eternally rising into the future.

Financial markets are at all time highs (all due to that socialist Obama of course), the new pope has been chosen (he too is now fiscally aware and is taking the bus and paying for his own hotel bill) and fiscal cliffs and other evil monsters are at bay, for now. Well, not really but let’s just believe it shall we?

I suggested in September last year that by now we’d be seeing a lift in things and if you trust recruiters and the general news articles written by people who all copy each other, then indeed things have picked up somewhat. At least the drillers have stopped ringing us up for work.

Still, there are plenty of things not going right of course, Barrick’s woes in the Dominican Republic, Rio’s OT issue that keeps being unresolved, the platinum guys hit hard in Zimbabwe by new “rules”, Rio and Xstrata slashing another 100 coal jobs, Rio being downgraded by Goldman Sachs, Solid Energy bosses under fire for their performance and now the scare again about the “dramatic” 5% drop in Fe-ore prices, the list goes on. We can’t help but scare ourselves silly, I love it! We’re also still getting hundreds of CV’s here at RSC so the musical chairs game is clearly still continuing for a bit.

I’m also a tad worried about Gillard’s comments in Australia on the 457 visa issue. It’s not the first time that bad decisions come out of this corner and I hope it will soon blow over.

Our industry continues to stretch the Australian pool of skilled workers and as a global geological service provider RSC works tirelessly to provide the best geologists and consultants for each project. This means resourcing clients from our international team all the time. When things pick up again Australia will need good people and there simply aren’t enough of them down under.

So, my take on it is that things are still very turbulent but some life has definitely returned to the minerals industry and people are getting out there and drilling holes again. Maybe smaller companies have been more efficient in dealing with the issues than the larger companies who are clearly still struggling with the effects of the downturn. Some of our clients have been successful in getting access to funding and projects are starting up. When it comes to the next six months, we think things will continue to improve. So yes, we are copying the copy-cats ourselves……

What have we been up to in the last few months?

Well, the fact that I’ve been too busy (again) to put pen to paper and write this piece means that we have not been sitting still. We’re starting a new exploration project in Mozambique, have started a new project in New Zealand and continue to rock over in Sweden. Avalon Minerals has been getting nice results over there; check out their latest announcements on the ASX.

Paul showing us how it’s done in Northland, New Zealand. Photo supplied by Paul Rutherford, Consultant Geologist 

We’ve also been doing some work for Bullabulling again who continue to move their project forward towards a DFS. We’re continuing our work in Mali for Resolute and are helping out MMG and Barrick in Australia to name a few. We also continue to expand our resource evaluation, project review and training capacity with new work in Africa and Europe. You can find out more about our clients on the RSC website.

Early Morning shot of the drill rig and Northern lights in Kiruna, Sweden, north of the Arctic Circle. Photo supplied by RSC Exploration Geologist, James Weston. Take a look at our gallery of images from the project.

RSC 5 year anniversary!

Folks, a milestone is nigh. In April 2008, five years ago, during a sleepless night somewhere in Adelaide the decision was made to move away from a career as a company geologist and set up a consulting and contracting business. I wish I could say like a knight in a good fairy tale “… and we never looked back”, but that wouldn’t necessarily be true.

It has been tough business with lots of competition, big ups and downs, one deadline on top of another and very steep learning curves. I’ve never really been a big fan of reading those books by successful business people (other than Branson) but I can just sum them up in one line: never give up and believe in what you do. Oh and yes, you can’t do this without an absolutely amazing wife.

We believe in what we do at RSC and I am pretty proud of how we have developed. Considering that we started this business right at the start of the financial crisis, I think we’ve done just fine.

Anyway, to the point: We’re planning a big party in Perth and our Director of Fun, Nikola Boswell will surely get in touch with people for invitations. It’ll be a great event and we hope to see you all there.

So what does RSC do?

RSC provides geological contracting and consulting services with a difference. One of our main aims is to add technical value to our clients’ programmes and act with the same amount of ownership and passion as employees.

We don’t just send out mine and exploration geologists to help with a programme, we make sure our professionals have excellent support and come with all the tools, hardware and software necessary to hit the ground running. We invest in training our geologists to make sure they add value from day one. We also have access to specialists all around the world, with experience in all commodities and all stages from exploration to production.

We do more than just fill a gap in our clients’ busy exploration and mining programmes. We add genuine value, whether it is logging core on an underground rig, logging RC chips on a surface rig, or looking after an exploration programme from A to Z.

We understand of course that we are not the only ones offering these kind of services. RSC feels strongly that its clients shouldn’t have to pay higher than normal rates for a contractor and at the same time have to educate and kit them up as well, something that we hear only too often!

Our rates are very reasonable. We have never positioned ourselves to “milk” the market as much as possible by charging excessive rates, but we grow on sustainable relationships built on quality and trust.

RSC operates worldwide and provides consulting, exploration and geological services for junior explorers as well as for bigger companies such as Barrick. For more information see www.rscmme.com or just give us a call. Don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook.

We would value the opportunity to discuss in how we could be of benefit to your team and project goals.