Malcolm Mewett

Kiwi - Mining, Rugby and the Arts. I live the poetry I cannot write…

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

“I don’t have talent, so I just get up earlier.”

— Henry Rollins

[Herod Priovolos @herodpriovolos]

Dear Christopher Nolan,
My name is Herod Priovolos and I want to tell you what #TheOdyssey truly means to me and to generations of Greeks who grew up with Homer’s story.
Homer did not sing of Odysseus simply to entertain us with ships, storms, gods and monsters. He told the story because he understood what war, time, distance and loss can do to the human soul.
Odysseus leaves Ithaca as a king, a husband and a father. He returns twenty years later alone, exhausted and disguised as a beggar, carrying the memory of every companion who never made it home.
The monsters are not merely creatures created for spectacle.
The Cyclops is power without justice. The Sirens are the beautiful voices that tempt a person to abandon their purpose. Circe represents the danger of losing our humanity. Calypso offers Odysseus immortality, but even eternal life becomes a prison when the price is forgetting his wife, his son, his homeland and his own identity.
And Ithaca is not merely an island.
Ithaca is the place that remembers you when the world no longer recognizes your face. It is the home that remains alive inside you after everything else has been taken away. It is Penelope growing older while she waits. It is Telemachus becoming a man without his father. It is Argos surviving long enough to recognize his master one final time.
Odysseus is not great simply because he defeats monsters. He is great because he is proud, frightened, wounded, clever, imperfect and deeply human. He loses his companions, his youth, his name and twenty years of his life, yet he refuses to forget who he is.
When he finally returns, Penelope does not recognize him through strength, glory or appearance. She tests him. Odysseus proves his identity by remembering the bed they built together around the roots of a living olive tree.
That is the heart of The Odyssey.
Not the battles.
Not the ships.
Not the monsters.
Two people standing before each other after twenty years, asking whether love, memory and identity can survive everything time has done to them.
That is why this poem has survived for almost 3,000 years. Every human being is trying to return to something: a home, a person, a lost part of themselves, or the life they had before the world changed them.
So use Homer’s seas, gods, heroes and monsters. But please understand what you are touching.
The Odyssey was never truly about how far a man could travel.
It was about how much the world could take from him before he stopped being himself, and whether, after losing almost everything, he could still find his way home.

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

“I lived so carefully, thinking someone was watching. But the stage was empty, the audience never came.”

— Osamu Dazai

[Neil Ringdahl @NeilRingdahl]

A great article on mining scams by @KJKLtd 👇
You got to read his link on the Bre-X scandal;
Finally, my long-held suspicion that de Guzman is still alive seem to be confirmed.

[Malcolm Mewett @MalMewett]

@mininghistory Thanks - Malcolm

[Malcolm Mewett @MalMewett]

@mininghistory Duncan, which town/mine were these photos taken?

[Viora Tech @Viora_Tech_Ai]

After 3 years using Claude, I can say it’s the technology that has revolutionized my life.

Here are 18 prompts I use daily that have transformed my day to day; they could do the same for you:

(Save this 🔖)

[Duncan Money @mininghistory]

It amazes me that people were still doing dangerous underground work dressed in short-sleeve shirts and shorts in the 1970s.

These miners were trying to drain an underground aquifer 700 metres underground at Konkola Mine in Zambia.

[Paul Ehrlich @PaulEhrlich13]

@DAMendelsohnNYC on translating The Odyssey--like a superb course on Homer

https://t.co/iklU4pB1Q7

[Ken K - Mining Consultant 🇨🇦⚒️ @KJKLtd]

MINING PROJECT TIMELINE VIEWER: I have changed functionality by adding a free timeline viewer. To "create or edit" a timeline one still needs to access the free Editor. There are 6 companies thus far. Check it out. Thoughts? https://t.co/GRiqsLxGVD

[Sishuwa Sishuwa @ssishuwa]

'I ask those of you whose country it is: Is this the Zambia you want?'

Too often, people in the diplomatic community move from one duty station to another with little concern for the problems of the countries that briefly host them. Not Michael Gonzales, the United States Ambassador to Zambia who is leaving the country to take up a deserved promotion in Washington.

I have never met Gonzales in person, but developed a liking for him, based on his work in Zambia and what I unearthed about him in the course of my academic research in other countries such as Zimbabwe and Malawi where he previously worked. He has a consistent track record of holding governments accountable for their actions in violation of their own laws and for harming the interests of their people and countries for personal benefit.

Over time, I discovered the key to understanding Gonzales: His character. It radiates sharp focus, care and respect for the dignity of other people, and capacity to speak one's mind. Gonzales is a forthright, upstanding, and authentic human being with basic decency, integrity, and rectitude.

The outgoing US Ambassador, who took up his appointment in August 2022, is leaving the same way he led: with care, courage, compassion, candidness, and affection for Zambia. For him, Zambia was not simply a duty station; it was a place he genuinely loves and cares for, one that has been let down by successive government leaders including the current ones. On 30 April, he delivered his parting words. They were as pointed as his nose.

Below are excepts form his farewell speech, followed by the complete text of his remarks.

On the insanity of appointing corruption accused suspects to lead anti-corruption bodies

“But appointing a Director General of the Anti-Corruption Commission who was actively under investigation by the ACC, and her admonishment to her intentionally under-resourced agency not to investigate senior government officials, only cripple hopes that clean business can be done.”

On the lawlessness of the government and its consequences

“When Parliament ignores the Constitutional Court’s ruling that the process used to ram through a constitutional amendment was itself unconstitutional, investors rightly ask “If they can do that to the constitution, what does that mean for the sanctity of my contract?” They rightly wonder if the next constitutional amendment which the Attorney General has already announced is really just a guise for resetting term limits.”

On the selective application of the law:

“The rhetoric of “no sacred cows” is rubbish when there aren’t any cows except those who are deemed to be disloyal. When only opponents are arrested, but not those in office engaged in the very same practices, the hollow rhetoric of “rule of law” only further keeps investors away, preventing the creation of growth, jobs, and tax revenues to pay for public service commitments.”

On the need to fight corruption including illicit financial flows:

“The Zambian government’s own reports reveal that every year Zambia loses over $4 billion in dirty money flows to East Asia. That is Zambian money that does not benefit the Zambian people or contribute to the budget. If taxed, that would bring an additional $1 billion for the government to fund healthcare, education, social services, and development.”

On how corruption has become a norm with no consequences for the perpetrators

“Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars of government funds are lost to the Zambian people through corruption. Certainly, it’s not just U.S. taxpayers’ support that is stolen. Every year, the country loses out on hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment and growth because they are hijacked by unmitigated petty corruption, blocked because law-abiding investors refuse to pay kickbacks to Zambian bureaucrats or leaders who are never held accountable.

"Even the Chinese government convicted AVIC’s Chairman to death for corruption. AVIC’s Chingola-Chililabombwe Road was washed out last month, its negligence disrupting Zambia’s trade with the region. AVIC’s fraud in a $320 million police housing tender in 2014 is well documented. Despite that, this government ignored the competitive bid by renown Zambian investors only to award AVIC the $650 million Lusaka-Ndola Dual Carriageway project, subsidizing this notoriously fraudulent and corrupt company with $300 million from the public pension scheme. How does this happen? Can law-abiding investors do clean business here? Will donors be asked to backfill the loss when the pension money too is wiped out?”

On confirming reports that President Hichilema's officials unsuccessfully asked the US State Department in 2024 to recall Gonzales over his strong criticism of corruption in government:

“Attacking the messenger who dares to name these dynamics out loud is not limited in targeting the U.S. ambassador and asking Washington for his removal. Today, 10% of my diplomats have family members who still haven’t received basic residency permits from the Zambian government. Several have received court summonses as a result. Like Zambians themselves experience, ZRA staff shake down my departing diplomats for fees that don’t apply to them too. When
elevated, their supervisors double down on the demand.”

On the duty of active citizenship:

“So, as I prepare to leave this country that I love, I ask those of you whose country it is: Is this the Zambia you want? Are you on course to achieve it? If not, what action will you take to contribute to making that become a reality?”

Below is the complete text of Gonzales' speech.

Remarks by Amb. Michael Gonzales Farewell Reception – April 30, 2026

Good evening.

For decades, the U.S. relationship with Zambia was one centered around aid. The United States has provided billions of dollars of assistance to Zambia, helping the country reach HIV epidemic control, contributing to a 20-year increase in life expectancy, slashing malaria deaths, and truly impacting the lives of every Zambian alive today.

When we paused funding to review our assistance programs last year, so much of Zambia’s health system began to crumble almost overnight. Despite over $7 billion in U.S. health assistance since 2000 and the hard work of many Zambians alongside us, that crumbling system revealed that while we thought we were building capacity, successive Zambian governments had not built systems. Too often, Zambian officials and leaders abdicated their responsibilities, letting the United States pay for healthcare while officials diverted government funds to their own pockets.

Last year I shed tears before the world when I announced a $50 million cut in US health assistance. After years of pleading, I could no longer standby while the Zambian government refused to stop or take action to hold people accountable for the systematic and nationwide theft of U.S. provided medicines while the Zambian citizens for whom those were intended went without.

One year later, not a single notable person has been arrested since last February. Not a single notable prosecution has even begun.

After last year’s pause, we resumed almost all of our health assistance: over $400 million including over $75 million in medication. We continue to pay the salaries for over 23,000 healthcare workers, as we have for decades. Such is the legacy of America’s support to the Zambian people.

Now, I know there have been alarmist allegations recently. But let me be clear, any suggestion that the United States would withhold critical life-saving healthcare support from those Zambians whose lives and health depend on it unless we get critical minerals is disgusting and patently false!

In reality, since October, my government has offered over $2 billion in additional health and economic assistance to Zambia. But we can no longer accept empty promises. The future must look different. The Zambian government must also increase Zambian funding, staffing, and genuine ownership of its systems. This is not to impose our will; it is the only way we know for Zambia to truly own a sustainable healthcare system and to enable robust growth. It’s the only way we know to ensure that system serves the people while finally breaking the cycle of foreign aid dependency.

Since January, however, like with so many of our other overtures to the Zambian government, we have had effectively zero substantive engagement from Zambian officials to move these efforts forward. Our calls go ignored, questions unanswered, meetings cancelled, leaving us without even opportunities to speak, much less engage in substantive deliberations. Instead of continuing to languish without engagement, the actual funding under our Health MOU should have started this month. Instead, we have reached April 30 still cobbling together funds for mismatched projects without an implementation plan to guide us forward under Zambian leadership, much less a finalized MOU that guides our strategic approach.

We know that the Zambian budget cannot even afford to pay for public services today, not to mention the increased healthcare funding or the myriad other huge budget commitments that seem to get pledged daily. So, something has to change if Zambia will ever meet its full potential or be able to sustainably provide services to its own people.

At the same time, the Zambian government’s own reports reveal that every year Zambia loses over $4 billion in dirty money flows to East Asia. That is Zambian money that does not benefit the Zambian people or contribute to the budget. If taxed, that would bring an additional $1 billion for the government to fund
healthcare, education, social services, and development.

Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars of government funds are lost to the Zambian people through corruption. Certainly, it’s not just U.S. taxpayers’ support that is stolen. Every year, the country loses out on hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment and growth because they are hijacked by unmitigated petty corruption, blocked because law-abiding investors refuse to pay kickbacks to Zambian bureaucrats or leaders who are never held accountable.

The narrative of the U.S.-Zambia relationship is adorned with flowery words of “partnership,” “collaboration,” “strategic,” or “mutual.” Regrettably, the reality of our unrequited relationship for decades has been starkly different.

For years, the United States funded programs and sent technical advisors to help achieve Zambia’s development objectives. As we have for these past four months, we have often struggled to get successive governments to even bother answering the phone. It takes months to get a meeting that yields nothing. Officials draft policies they have no intention of implementing, invoking them in only speeches to sound like they are taking action. MOUs decay on the shelf among the others before the signing ceremony even ends, never to be implemented because the ministry won’t even meet to discuss implementation. Why? Because generations of Zambian officials and leaders gain from the dysfunction.

The non-responsiveness on our availed funding and efforts to truly build a Zambian-owned health system that serves the Zambian people is sadly the norm. The theater of commissioning a report to get a scandal out of the news cycle but taking no substantive action on accountability is all too common. Of course, the systematic theft of public resources is not unique to American-provided medicines. Attacking the messenger who dares to name these dynamics out loud is not limited in targeting the U.S. ambassador and asking Washington for his removal.

Today, 10% of my diplomats have family members who still haven’t received basic residency permits from the Zambian government. Several have received court summonses as a result. Like Zambians themselves experience, ZRA staff shake down my departing diplomats for fees that don’t apply to them too. When elevated, their supervisors double down on the demand.

Zambia’s institutionalized and refined corruption does not only dissuade transparent and law-abiding investors from the United States. The inaction, corruption, and intimidation of opponents also harms American citizens, it undermines American organizations, NGOs, companies, and philanthropies. Zambians and so many other global friends of Zambia are also hampered by these very same dynamics, often bearing far more of the brunt of their effects.

America’s support to Zambia is long-standing. Our goodwill runs through the veins, the hearts, and the dreams of millions of Zambians. Our hands remain open, outstretched in a genuine, transparent offer of true, tangible, and meaningful collaboration for mutual benefit. But there must be change.

Going forward, the benefits of our relationship must be mutual. Empty promises must be replaced with tangible action. Commitments must be honored, laws must be implemented and enforced consistently and equally. The decades of paying for healthcare while national resources are pocketed must give way to ownership and systematic improvements that enable growth, development, and accountability.

Since President Hichilema and I committed to reset the U.S.-Zambia relationship last July, America has re-doubled our efforts to support robust Zambian agency. We have availed billions of dollars to support tangible investments and reforms to catalyze Zambia’s success. We have offered expert support to inform reforms that would systematically benefit both the Zambian people and their many friends from around the world, without bias or favor.

Sadly, so many of our overtures and goodwill have been met with … to use the most persistent and notorious of the Zambian government’s responses … “Noted. With thanks.”

But, appointing a Director General of the Anti-Corruption Commission who was actively under investigation by the ACC, and her admonishment to her intentionally under-resourced agency not to investigate senior government officials, only cripple hopes that clean business can be done.

Last May, multiple senior government officials shared with me and have confirmed that the government has a 500-page expert report detailing the irreversible harm and risk of generations of birth defects, cancers, heart and liver disease caused by carcinogenic heavy metals unleashed into the Kafue River ecosystem by last year’s Sino Metals’ tailings dam disaster. But, my heart broke when on July 29th last year, one of the country’s seniormost leaders vehemently denied that the government even had the report, much less would act on it until the polluter themselves provided it. I pleaded with her to take action to protect the Zambian people and I again offered U.S. assistance, which the Foreign Ministry had already formally declined.

While so many American prospective investors leave, put off by bureaucratic drudgery, inaction, and corruption, the Zambian government recently approved Sino Metals to expand its operations. Did this happen in the face of Zambia’s myriad impediments, or because of them? Today, Sino Metals is scarring game management areas abutting the Kafue National Park. When that tailings dam breaks, I will not be alone shedding tears.

Punctuating this, apart from the truly exceptional cases, too many American companies cannot get licenses, approvals, or action on basic administrative matters without being shaken down to give the Sino-brown envelopes of cash. The Zambian people suffer the consequences of these dual offenses: exploitation and foregone opportunity.

When Parliament ignores the Constitutional Court’s ruling that the process used to ram through a constitutional amendment was itself unconstitutional, investors rightly ask “If they can do that to the constitution, what does that mean for the sanctity of my contract?” They rightly wonder if the next constitutional amendment which the Attorney General has already announced is really just a guise for resetting term limits.

Even the Chinese government convicted AVIC’s Chairman to death for corruption. AVIC’s Chingola-Chililabombwe Road was washed out last month, its negligence disrupting Zambia’s trade with the region. AVIC’s fraud in a $320 million police housing tender in 2014 is well documented. Despite that, this government ignored the competitive bid by renown Zambian investors only to award AVIC the $650 million Lusaka-Ndola Dual Carriageway project, subsidizing this notoriously fraudulent and corrupt company with $300 million from the public pension scheme. How does this happen? Can law-abiding investors do clean business here? Will donors be asked to backfill the loss when the pension money too is wiped out?

The rhetoric of “no sacred cows” is rubbish when there aren’t any cows except those who are deemed to be disloyal. When only opponents are arrested, but not those in office engaged in the very same practices, the hollow rhetoric of “rule of law” only further keeps investors away, preventing the creation of growth, jobs, and tax revenues to pay for public service commitments.

Zambia does not need money. It needs leaders who govern for the people with integrity. It needs the political will to put Zambia first.

But, of course, you don’t need me to say this. Dambisa Moyo, herself a daughter of the soil, made these same arguments 17 years ago.

What America is trying to do here is both bolster Zambia’s sovereignty and catalyze Zambia’s growth. We are offering a transparent and open hand to join the Zambian people for mutual progress. We know that while you pursue a Zambia First agenda and we pursue America First, we are still able together to achieve something notably better for both of our countries, and we can do so without it coming at anyone’s expense, anyone’s exclusion, fully transparently, and legally.

Now, of course the United States will absolutely continue to honor our long-standing commitment to the Zambian people to provide critical life-saving healthcare support. We will not leave Zambians without access to ARVs. We are redoubling our support to ensure that babies are not born HIV-positive.

But,

· Against the unmitigated systematic theft of U.S. assistance,

· Against the refusal by the Zambian government to engage and to own or enable a sustainable healthcare system that serves the people,

· In an environment where only the most exceptional of American investors can do clean business, and

· Where Zambian government officials often can scarcely be bothered to take meetings with American officials or companies, not to mention capture the billion dollars of its own money secreted out of the country to east Asia, or hold accountable the company that unleashes generations of cancer and birth defects onto the people…

without fundamental change, as the American Ambassador to the Republic of Zambia, how can I ask American taxpayers, Congress, or President Trump to continue the massive aid budgets that have been the hallmark of our relationship for decades?

The United States remains intent to work with Zambia toward our mutual objectives, but how Washington responds to silence, inaction, aversion to accountability, and lack of ownership remains to be seen. That said, I am confident that it will depend on fundamental changes by the Zambian government to take action to do right by the Zambian people. It will depend on actions to foster and enable the Zambian people – and their partners who abide by the rule of law – to be able to tangibly contribute to a mutually beneficial future.

Washington’s hand remains open and outreached for transparent, accountable collaboration enabling tangible action to benefit both of our countries. But we can no longer own the projects more than the Zambian government. We can’t justify continuing to prioritize funding where the Zambian government also does not deploy its own resources. No longer will we lead, while Zambian officials sit back unresponsively. Quite simply, America can best support Zambia’s sovereignty, agency, and success, if we finally abide by the maxim and refrain from wanting development more than the Zambian government does.

That said, what happens between governments and embassies is important, but it is only a small fraction of the broader relationship between countries. The ties between Zambia and America are profound, strong, and everlasting. The connections between churches and civil society; the linkages between students, artists, and researchers; the bonds between communities; the union of our peoples – these are the essence of the U.S.-Zambia relationship, and these will never fade.

Too often people hope for change. They note what others should do. But, hope is not a strategy, and we cannot control the actions of others, only our own.

So, as I prepare to leave this country that I love, I ask those of you whose country it is: Is this the Zambia you want? Are you on course to achieve it? If not, what action will you take to contribute to making that become a reality?

I first stepped foot in Zambia in 1995. My daughter took her first steps in Livingstone. As I prepare to depart, I take with me beautiful memories of Zambia and the Zambian people, but I depart with a heavy heart wondering if realization of the Zambian dream will be deferred for yet another 64 years while even more Zambians fall into poverty instead of being able to rise into the brilliant future that is possible.

But my role here is not about this little guy with a big heart for Africa. It is about America and Zambia. America will continue reaching out to the people of Zambia, offering our support, seeking as much to learn as to share, doing so openly and transparently, and eager to help enable the realization of that Zambian dream and the creative future that benefits, and can only be discovered through, our sincere partnership.

I thank you.

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

Growth requires exploration.
Growth requires discipline.
Growth requires accountability.

[Malcolm Mewett @MalMewett]

@mininghistory Still is the wettest @mininghistory. Pumps out approximately one million cubic meters of water every 3 days. Around triple Luanshya’s dewatering rate - but over decades. All whilst in production, developing and now, expansion.

[Neil Ringdahl @NeilRingdahl]

A systems approach to Mining & AI 🧵:
What astounds me is the new levels of inefficiency deliberately being built into mining operations in many places, all in the name of improving efficiency, safety and/or business improvement.

You don't make a mine more safe by implementing more systems; you make a mine safe by implementing & maintaining a safety culture & holding people responsible for their bad decisions as well as rewarding good ones. It's always a people business, and always will be, even if Terminator 3 ultimately does most of your mining for you.

You don't necessarily make a mine more profitable, safe or efficient by implementing automated or AI solutions; you make a mine more efficient & profitable by moving material, safely, at a lower cost.

A number of new, fad systems (AI & otherwise) in the industry are simply too expensive, don't work well or work at all (yet): AI mine planning, Rail conveyors, hydrogen trucks, monorails, automated trucks, automated shovels, battery operated off-highway trucks.

Many work with great benefits but still have issues such as remote controlled loading & hauling, driver fatigue monitors etc.

AI or automated systems demand attention & need maintenance, quite possibly overstressing existing maintenance systems, often cost more and becoming the new distraction from the productivity you hoped they were designed to improve.

There is often a new manning component and always a learning curve to overcome as well.

The incremental cost and efficiency of keeping a new system operational & adapting it to ever changing mining conditions has to be lower and better than the old system to make it worthwhile.

Sounds obvious, but really it's not in practice.

A new system implementation always brings with it new problems that are conveniently ignored because it looks good or has been recommended by a good sales guy. Smart engineers may be able implement the new system, but suddenly they're focused on the new thing instead of what they're there to do in the first place: Produce safely at lower cost & higher productivity.

Murphy's law - If anything can go wrong, it probably will. True in mining and definitely true for all systems in mining.

Carefully evaluate any new system for these SYSTEM RELATED risks before blindly accepting the promised delta change.

[Malcolm Mewett @MalMewett]

https://t.co/2w6bkFLwxh

[BookNote @BookNoteApp]

11 underrated books you probably never heard about:

1) The Invention of Prehistory by Stefanos Geroulanos

'how we twist history to justify power'

[Duncan Money @mininghistory]

Aerial photo of the massive sinkhole at Mufulira after the disaster in 1970 when a tailings dam collapsed and poured into the mine. 89 miners were drowned.

[Duncan Money @mininghistory]

One of the best history books I’ve read recently. @DalrympleWill's account of how ideas and religious beliefs emanating from India shaped China, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and then Europe is convincing and engaging.

[power of books @Powerofbooks3]

Books That Will Make You GOAT

1. Psycho-Cybernetics