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PODCAST

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast

Dr Sarah Gordon and Critical Productions

The podcast about responsible mining, critical minerals and the raw materials behind modern life, from the energy transition to the buildings we live in. Each week, geologist and sustainability specialist Dr Sarah Gordon sits down with engineers, investors, policymakers, researchers and community leaders from across the mineral value chain to explore how decisions about raw materials are really made: what works, what doesn"t, and the trade-offs in between. New episodes every Thursday. Produced

science earth sciences

All Episodes

00:57:38

Platinum Group Metals and the 100% Recycled Myth,...

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/10/01

Platinum Group Metals and the 100% Recycled Myth, with Emma Schofield.Emma Schofield is a chemist who spent 22 years in the platinum group metals (PGM) industry at Johnson Matthey, the world's largest secondary refiner. A former inorganic chemistry lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, she found her way into industry by reading the labels on lab bottles. Her work spanned catalyst chemistry, new uses for palladium and PGM policy, and she now consults as an associate with Satarla. PGM recycling is

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00:54:25

Can Secondary Metals Close The Supply Gap? with Liv...

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/09/24

Liv Carroll is a geologist and mining transformation specialist whose career spans the UK minerals industry, mineral exploration in Turkey and a decade using data and AI to transform mining and metals companies. The spark came at nine, when the Gaia Atlas of Planet Management showed her the scale of global resource use, later leading her to choose geology over medicine. She now runs her own advisory firm and starts a part-time PhD in January.Her research asks how to build secondary metal supply

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00:48:30

What Conflict Really Costs Mining with Doron Tadmor

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/09/17

What does social conflict actually cost a mining company - not in reputation, but in dollars? Sarah is joined by Doron Tadmor, who recently completed his PhD studying how mining companies navigate stakeholder and political risk with indigenous communities.The conversation centres on Doron's paper in Resources Policy, which examined 28 large-scale mining projects in Peru and identified $31.9 billion in conflict-related costs - 93% of it from lost productivity due to blockades and suspended

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00:56:48

Imagine a Rubik's cube: The Future of Construction...

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/09/10

Burak Kaplanoglu was doing sustainability work long before the word was fashionable, beginning with a concern for the people on site. Born in Istanbul and in the UK since 1995, he has built his career on some of the world’s largest capital projects, from the London 2012 Olympics to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar and Expo 2020. Two years ago he left a global consultancy to set up on his own as director of SBKaplan, and guest lectures at the LSE.At the heart of the conversation is a Rubik’s Cube: turn

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00:55:09

The Raw Materials Hidden in Our Cities - Gareth Byatt

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/09/03

We recycle steel. We're rather good at it. But recycling isn't the same as reuse, and that gap is quietly costing us. In the latest episode of the Responsible Raw Materials podcast, engineer Gareth Byatt makes the case with a simple question: can a steel beam simply remain a steel beam? Today, when a building comes down, we crush much of it, downcycling steel into low-grade rebar and burying valuable niobium, copper and nickel along with it. The materials survive, but their

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00:52:03

What Happens to a Smart Meter After It Leaves Your...

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/08/27

What Happens to a Smart Meter After It Leaves Your WallHelen Woodcock came to sustainability through risk management, and a refusal to accept that anything is simply the way it works. Over a career in energy services, she worked inside a major UK organisation installing smart meters, heat pumps and other household energy technology, responsible for their whole life cycle. She now works independently in Northern Ireland, helping smaller organisations understand their supply chains. She talks about

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00:51:17

Peter Harvey: Mine Closure and the True Cost of Metals

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/08/20

Mine Closure and the True Cost of MetalsMine closure is one of the biggest unsolved challenges in responsible mining, and Peter Harvey has spent the last seven years at the heart of it. His route was unusual: environmental science, then outdoor education for young people excluded from school (companies he still directs), a master's in occupational psychology, and a decade enabling mineral exploration across West Africa, Asia and beyond, before seventeen years at Rio Tinto spanning exploration,

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01:03:11

Tim Law: Why Tax Is the Most Powerful Word in Mining

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/08/13

Why Tax Is the Most Powerful Word in Mining Tim Law is a chartered accountant and tax expert who spent nearly two decades in corporate tax teams, twelve of them inside a major mining company. What makes him worth hearing is where that path led - from tax returns to the murkier questions of who owns, controls and benefits from the world's mineral wealth. His argument starts somewhere unexpected: tax, he says, is the least boring subject in mining, because it is where the balance between risk and

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00:45:23

Michael Barron: The Role of Raw Materials in the...

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/08/06

Gas, The Strait of Hormuz and the Raw Materials Geopolitical Landscape of the Middle East Michael Barron is a Middle East political risk specialist who came to natural resources by an unusual route. He studied Arabic, worked in consultancy, then moved into the oil and gas industry - a background that lets him read a gas field and a government with equal fluency. He is also the author of The Gaza Marine Story, which traces the untapped gas field off the coast of Gaza that, more than two decades after

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00:41:48

David Strang: Challenging Everything the Industry...

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/07/30

David Strang: Challenging Everything the Industry Takes for Granted David Strang has had an unusual route into mining leadership. A Glaswegian raised in a South African mining town, he studied applied earth sciences at Stanford on an athletics scholarship, ran for Great Britain at the 1996 Olympics, then learned company-building under Ross Beaty at Lumina Copper - a portfolio eventually acquired for more than US$1.6 billion. In 2016 he co-founded Ero Copper, where he is now executive chairman of a

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00:52:18

Melody McNeil: Above Ground First - What Mining Can...

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/07/23

Melody McNeil is an agriculture and natural resource economist who has spent decades working with USAID and Catholic Relief Services across East and Central Africa, Afghanistan, and South Sudan - not inside mining companies, but alongside them, and who has seen first-hand what happens when above-ground conditions are treated as an afterthought. The conversation centres on a deceptively simple question: if you were the CEO of a small exploration company, how would you do it? What unfolds is a

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00:44:33

John Thompson: Describe, Don't Quantify - A Career...

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/07/16

John Thompson is a geoscientist who spent five decades deliberately moving between industry and academia. After studying geology at Oxford, he went on to explore for magmatic sulphides in Norway and Maine, spend four years in Australia, found the Mineral Deposit Research Unit at UBC, and serve as Chief Geoscientist and VP of Technology at Teck.The thread running through John's career is something he diagnoses with frankness - a limited attention span. What is clear from this conversation is how that

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00:41:50

Anne Thompson: A Geologist's Career at the Edge of...

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/07/09

Anne Thompson is a geologist, mineralogist, and self-described snake that sheds its skin. Over four decades she has worked as an exploration field geologist in Australia and the Southwest Pacific, built and sold an applied mineralogy consulting company, helped produce the Atlas of Alteration, and served on the council of the Society of Economic Geologists. She also hosts her own podcast, Discovery to Recovery. What makes Anne compelling is her refusal to take the comfortable position - from her

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00:41:39

Caroline Tiddy: ‘If we don’t learn how to adopt and...

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/07/02

In this episode, we sit down with Professor Caroline Tiddy, Chief Scientific Officer at MinEx CRC and Associate Professor of Geosciences at Adelaide University. From her beginnings in rural Australia to an unconventional pathway through chemistry and geology, Caroline shares how she found her niche in geochemistry, and why she initially resisted economic geology altogether. Reflecting on pivotal career moments, including a shift from purely academic research to industry-focused, applied science, she

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00:24:22

Caitlin Byrt and Samantha McGaughey: The  Green ...

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/06/25

What if the key to sustainable metals, minerals, and nutrient recovery has been growing in front of us all along? In this episode of Responsible Raw Materials, Professor Caitlin Byrt and Dr Samantha McGaughey from the Australian National University reveal how plant biology is inspiring breakthrough technologies that can extract critical resources from industrial and urban waste. From salt‑tolerant wheat now grown in 11 countries to plant‑inspired separation systems for metals and nutrients, this

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00:36:04

Pim van Geffen: Why Mining Needs to Use Its Data Better

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/06/18

From the Arctic tundra of northern Quebec to the laboratories and boardrooms shaping the future of critical minerals, Dr Pim van Geffen’s career has been driven by curiosity, and a passion for understanding the materials that underpin modern society. In this episode of the Responsible Raw Materials  podcast, Pim shares the experiences that sparked and sustained his fascination with geology and geochemistry. Along the way, we revisit how a chance encounter with a mining company during his master’s

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00:28:46

Dr. Geertje Schuitema: Listening, Trust, and Raw...

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/06/11

This episode of Responsible Raw Materials explores what happens when psychology meets geochemistry. Joining us is Dutch psychologist and behavioural scientist Dr. Geertje Schuitema whose career has spanned research into electric vehicle adoption, smart energy technologies, and, more recently, the societal challenges surrounding critical raw materials. From tackling ‘range anxiety’ in the early days of electric vehicles to understanding why people need an override button on smart technologies, we

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00:41:14

John Howchin: “Follow the Money”: The Power Behind...

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/06/04

In this episode, Sarah Gordon speaks with sustainability expert John Howchin about the powerful role finance plays in shaping the future of mining and raw materials. With decades of experience working at the intersection of investment and sustainability, John reflects on how the real leverage for change lies not just with operators, but with the owners of capital. From the early days of ESG and corporate accountability to today’s global investment landscape, the conversation explores how

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00:26:56

Madhurii Sarkar Amoda: Mining, Communities & Integrity

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/05/28

In this episode, we sit down with Madhurii Sarkar Amoda, a leading voice in community development, stakeholder engagement, and sustainable mining practices in Nigeria. From growing up in Lagos to navigating the cultural complexities of rural mining communities, Madhurii shares her remarkable journey into the mining sector and the lessons she’s learned building trust between corporations, governments, and host communities. She opens up about managing expectations, negotiating difficult stakeholder

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00:24:35

Louise Porteus: From Exploration to Legacy - Trust,...

Responsible Raw Materials Podcast ·

2026/05/21

In this episode, we speak with Louise, an environmental and social leader in mining, about her journey from growing up in an Australian coal community to working across 50+ countries - and ultimately finding her place in the raw materials sector. Driven by a desire to create real-world impact, she shares why she moved from development and consultancy into operations, joining Thor Explorations as it grew into gold mining in Nigeria. Louise discusses what responsible mining looks like in

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23 results

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