Applied judgement on critical and strategical mineral mining projects, portfolios and supply chains.
Karen Bright Volp examines the assumptions, constraints, dependencies and interactions that determine whether intended outcomes remain deliverable as conditions change.
All Insights
Selected Insights
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Antimony in the ground isn’t antimony in ammunition
September 2026 Download full article [PDF] The strategic supply question isn’t where’s the antimony or the processor. It’s what components form the chain of mining, processing and manufacturing that we need to go from the…
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Dolphin Tungsten: When Reality Diverges from the Plan
27 April 2026 Download article [PDF] Dolphin is already deviating from its feasibility sequence – and that tells you more than the DFS ever could. The original plan was sequential:Open pit → then underground. What’s…
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Feasibility is not what you think it is
29 April 2026 Download article [PDF] Feasibility is not what you think it is. Most mining projects don’t fail because the ore isn’t there. They fail because what was modelled does not hold when it…
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Jervois – This isn’t a funding story. It’s a feasibility system.
23 April 2026 Download article [PDF] Feasibility is interpretation.Capital enables it.Reality decides. When a copper DFS requires a by-product streaming agreement to move into construction, the question may not be success – it may be…
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Resource Capital Funds did not buy a mine. It bought a system.
27 July 2026 Download article [PDF] Cobre Las Cruces isn’t a typical mine finance transaction. Resource Capital Funds have acquired more than a former open-pit copper mine with plans for underground expansion. They’ve acquired responsibility…
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Can Markets Sustain Strategic Capability?
8 July 2026 Download article [PDF] What if the problem isn’t the capital – but the commercial assumptions we’re asking capital to finance? If rare earths separation remains structurally uneconomic as market pricing evolves, are…
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Anticipatory Recomposition
10 August 2026 Download full article [PDF] Across the North West Minerals Province (NWMP) in Queensland, Australia, typical M&A activity amongst so many participants, concentrated in this crucible of time and space, is allowing us…
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How a fragile project can become viable
2 June 2026 Download article [PDF] I recently wrote that a higher gold price doesn’t solve project fragility. Yet a project can remain fragile and still become a viable component of a larger operating system.…
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A higher gold price may not save the project
21 May 2026 Download article [PDF] What isn’t interesting in the current gold market is that previously stranded projects are moving as the gold price rises. What is interesting is why those projects slowed, stalled,…
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Mt Isa Transformation Study Submission
30 July 2026 Download article [PDF] Bright Advisory Group’s submission to the Mount Isa Transformation Study examines the near-term viability of the Mount Isa-Townsville copper system and the decisions that will shape its future evolution.…