Archive | Commercial RSS feed for this section

UNDERSTANDING COAL – New Book Out

It is no secret that the mere mention of the word coal is divisive. Yet, people on either side of the debate have a far from adequate understanding of what coal actually is. Practically no one who is talking about coal these days has the faintest idea of the conditions under which it is formed, […]

Leave a comment Continue Reading →

100% Pure New Zealand … Critical Minerals!

As a New Zealand Citizen, I am always amazed at the grandeur of its landscape. Although I have lived outside New Zealand for the last 10 yrs, I can never forget just what a wonderful place it is.  Thus, when there was an opportunity to head back both for work and pleasure, how could I […]

Leave a comment Continue Reading →

A Critical Mineral Conundrum

As the world’s population passes the 8 billion mark there is little doubt the strain that puts on the Earth’s resources†. Just think on that for a moment. Clean, potable water is at a premium. Unprocessed food stuffs are not available to a large part of the population. And energy to power washing machines, schools, […]

Leave a comment Continue Reading →

Workshops of Reasonable Decisions

Like in many other places in the world, the country of Mongolia is endeavoring to move away from coal.  And it is trying to be both practical and realistic.  There are not many people in Mongolia, just 3.3 million for an area that stretches to 1.56 million square kilometers. People are spread pretty thinly over […]

Leave a comment Continue Reading →

Book Out Soon! – 2nd Edition of Coal and Coalbed Gas

The 2nd edition of “Coal and Coalbed Gas: Future Directions and Opportunities” is in production and should be out in September of 2023 – this year!  As many of you know the first edition was published in 2014 by Dr Romeo Flores and the second edition is authored by Romeo again as well as Tim […]

Leave a comment Continue Reading →

Coalbed Gas Resources of Mongolia – Cipher/AMEP/MRPAM/NGS finish assessment and hold workshops in Ulaanbaatar

Over the last seven months Cipher’s Experts have been working with Mongolian colleagues to assess the coalbed gas resources of Mongolia. The report was signed off just before the 30th of June, on time and to budget. The Australian Mongolian Extractives Program (AMEP – phase 2)/Australian Aid funded the work and our Mongolian team consisted […]

Leave a comment Continue Reading →

MONGOLIA: DEEPLY GEOLOGICAL AND CULTURALLY INSPIRING

Culturally, it’s not Asia. And it’s not Europe. Although they were under the influence of Russia for decades, its definitely not that either.  Mongolia is quite simply unique.  I’ve been here for the last two weeks giving some workshops and taking some trips into the countryside; most notably west of Ulaanbaatar, into the center of […]

Leave a comment Continue Reading →

ENERGY TRANSITION AND COAL BED METHANE IN MONGOLIA

Cipher Consulting has a few projects in Mongolia and because of this took part in the first annual donor coordination meeting, held virtually and hosted by the Australian Embassy in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The event took place on March 29, 2022, featuring two key presentations on the subject matter by the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Authority […]

Leave a comment Continue Reading →

Uncertainty – Shaken, Not Stirred

The beautiful thing about data is its uncertainty. That is, in a world where sometimes it is hard to know what is real and what is…well, lets say not real, with data you can actually characterize how certain you are about such and such. After a couple of decades of working in coal seam gas […]

Leave a comment Continue Reading →

Hydrogen

When someone says ‘hydrogen’, what do you think of? I think BOOM! I wasn’t sure why I thought that until I looked up the range at which hydrogen can explode compared to methane. And indeed hydrogen is more flammable. Methane’s range of concentration in which it can explode is between 5 and 15% (so lower […]

Leave a comment Continue Reading →