Mary Ann’s View  is a gentle blog by a Christian lady, Mary Ann Melton.   The blog posting to which I link is a ruminative, even wistful, reflection that all pro- and anti-mining advocates would do well to read.  Mary Ann Melton looks to be about my age, and maybe advancing aches and pains in hitherto unknown body parts goes hand in hand with advancing wisdom and perspective.  For example she writes:

I’ve been a regular visitor to Colorado since I was a young girl. I have enjoyed the rustic old mining ghost towns with their dilapidated houses and sluices. It represents a time in history when we thought everything was unlimited. We were not as aware of what the process of digging out ore did to the streams. There are a number of streams that still run red and orange from mining in the past. To our credit, there are a few areas that have really been cleaned up and revegetated. There is even one stream that used to be red that is now clear. But the residue remains on the stream bed.

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Some things never change: the same speech a year later; the same story a year later; and the same promises.  At least a year ago in Vancouver, I heard this speech.  Now it appears the speech was repeated in London yesterday.  And the mining media reports it as new.  That is sad.  I repeat a little bit of just to remind you:

Speaking to a packed audience at the at the World Mining Investment Congress in London, Tuesday, charismatic mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland, Executive Chairman of Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) treated the audience to his views on global warming, the future of the mining sector and the company’s huge Mongolian copper/gold and coal projects.

The report continues with something that makes me pause, for I instinctively agree:

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