About my work
I am an author, a consultant, a lecturer and a man of many monnikers conferred by statistically dysfunctional scholars and students of geostatistics. Most of all, I am an internationally recognized authority on sampling
theory and practice for dynamic and static stochastic
systems in the natural resource industry, and the application
of statistical methods in data analysis and measurement
technology. I have a life time of experience
in sampling and weighing of coals, concentrates,
industrial minerals, ores, and scores of bulk materials. My
experience in the Port of Rotterdam, the world's
largest port for bulk solids and liquids, and in the Port
of Vancouver, Canada's largest port in the Pacific Northwest,
together with a broad background in analytical chemistry,
chemical engineering, mining engineering, and mathematical statistics
have shaped my career in metrology, the science of measurement,
as it applies to the international commodity trade in general, and
to mineral exploration, mining, processing, smelting and
refining in particular.
I
was Vice President, Quality Control Services, with the
SGS Organization, a worldwide network of inspection companies that
acts as referee between international trading partners.
I was Assistant to the Chairman of Cominco Ltd where I reviewed
measurement systems and procedures used to determine
wet masses, moisture contents and metal grades and
contents of mill feed, tailing and concentrates, and compiled
an internal manual on weighing, sampling, sample preparation
and analysis. In these
positions I traveled extensively to coal and hard-rock
mines, mineral processing plants, smelters and steelworks,
power plants and bulk terminals in different part of the
world. I performed technical audits for clients in Australia,
Canada, Europe, South America and the USA.
I
introduced the concept of bias detection limits for statistical
risks as a measure for the power of Student's t-test,
the bias test par excellence, and the concept of probable
ranges as a measure for the limits within which an observed
bias is expected to fall. I conceptualized and evaluated
a mechanical sampling system for cathode copper that became
the de facto standard method at copper refineries
in different parts of the world. I designed mechanical
sampling systems and modules to routinely select pairs
of interleaving primary samples from crushed ore and slurry
flows.
In
the early 1990s, I reported to the Canadian Institute
of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum and to the Ontario
Securities Commission that geostatistics is an invalid
variant of mathematical statistics. I am writing a book
to explain why geostatistics inflates reserves and resources
and causes ore deposits to shrink during mining. I applied
statistical analyses to prove that Bre-X's Busang gold
deposit was a salting scam, and reported this finding
to my client several months before Felderhof was honored
by his peers, before De Guzman vanished in the Kalimantan
jungle, and before Strathcona Mineral Services drilled
twin holes in Bre-X's phantom gold deposit. I have been
involved as an expert witness in a number of cases ranging
from commercial disputes between trading partners to fraud
and criminal negligence. I was engaged by the Kaufman
inquiry into the Westray disaster to evaluate the validity
of the RCMP's stratified systematic sampling protocol
employed to determine the percentage combustible matter in
post-explosion dust.
I
have won wide recognition as a public speaker and seminar
leader for the McCrawHill Seminar
Center in Canada and the USA. I have presented seminars
and workshops all over the world. I wrote scores of papers
on popular and unpopular topics alike and a textbook
on “Sampling and Weighing of Bulk Solids ”, which
was translated into Mandarin. I am writing "Sampling and Statistics Explained" and developing spreadsheet software on applications of statistical methods in mineral exploration, mining. processing, smelting and refining.
I
have represented the Mining Association of Canada at the International Maritime Organization and served on several
Technical Committees of the International Standards Organization.
I have participated in the activities of ISO/TC27 on coal,
ISO/TC69 on applications of statistical methods, and ISO/TC102
on iron ore. I am the Chairman of the Canadian Advisory
Committee to ISO/TC183 on copper, lead and zinc concentrates.
I made significant contributions to the development of
ISO standards on sampling of concentrates, and on the
precision and bias of mass measurement techniques. In
1988, I introduced the concept of interleaving sampling
protocol to the Members of ISO/TC183, which has since
has been incorporated in several ISO standards.
On July 4, 2006, I was made a Life Member of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum in recognition of many years of active participation and service.
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