Australians are in love with cooking. But a recent poll suggested that Australians are not quite so in love with mining. Indeed, the poll found that a majority of the public do not even trust our industry to look after the nation’s best economic interests. The medium of TV could hold the answer to mining’s public relations problem. Forget Sunday night boutique channel mining documentaries, mining needs to get on to the primetime network channels.

So for next year, here is an idea for a TV show to bring mineral exploration and mining into every household; a show provisionally entitled My Prospect Rules.

The 2014 primetime show might go something like this. Teams of mineral explorers represent the various states, with the exception of the ACT, that is – which proves no great loss; as Canberra seems to know very little about mining. Teams then take it in turn to showcase various mineral prospects from their state in front of the other teams and, of course, in front of an experienced judging panel, too.

The first episode features a team from Western Australia, with a menu that kicks off with an exciting gold prospect out the back of the historic mining center of Kookynie. We see the members of the team desperately rushing to have a first round of aircore drill results ready in time for the judges.

Unfortunately, a significant part of the exploration budget has been consumed expediting a heritage survey. An argument in the team over what appear to be exorbitant legal fees adds to the tension. The outcome leaves precious few funds left to actually drill any holes. Things don’t get all that much better when the assays get stuck in the laboratory. What great TV. Will the results be ready in time? An ad break breaks the nervous tension. On return, we hear that Team WA has now paid for the samples to be expedited at the lab – at further unbudgeted cost.

Finally, the assay results arrive: initial 4m composites are returned with a number of coherent 0.5 grams per tonne to 1gpt gold results. The judges suggest that the assays are tantalisingly tasty – and can’t wait for the next course: RC drill testing.

Now for the main course: Team WA decide to move away from the traditional fare of gold and attempts to dish up a neat little uranium project up near Leinster. The judges nod knowingly to each other, however. No Greens for me please, advises one judge. But how on earth could a new uranium project possibly be permitted in time for the show to go to air on-time?

The main course indeed runs over time: The other teams sit patiently around the table, with the New South Wales team in particularly very empathetic about the delays in getting a project approved – even for coal, let alone for uranium. The results are as expected; another delay in the approvals process means that the uranium main course is not quite ready in time (you can’t keep Canberra off the show entirely). Team WA could be evicted unless they lift their game here.

To the dessert then – after another short ad-break that is. Team WA has decided to serve up a WA feast of DSO lump and fines; a traditional state speciality. Portions will no doubt be ample. The guest judges from China express their preference for lump over fines, adding as an afterthought for Team WA to “go easy on the phos”

The dessert is delicious – and good value for money at around $150/tonne. A touch less silica next time, says one judge as the closing credits roll.

That’s it from My Prospect Rules this week. Next week’s show features Queensland, with the team promising far more than just a sprinkling of coking coal.

Good Hunting

Allan Trench is a professor at the Curtin Graduate School of Business and a professor (value and risk) at the Centre for Exploration Targeting, University of Western Australia, a non-executive director of several resource sector companies and the Perth representative for CRU Strategies, a division of the independent CRU metals and mining advisory group. (allan.trench@crugroup.com).