Latest news with #Cribb
NZ Herald
18-05-2025
- General
- NZ Herald
Whanganui River restoration project nears completion, more funding sought
More than 440,000 plants have been bedded out along the river, nearly 170km of fencing has been installed, 160ha has been treated for weeds and 512ha for pests. The project has employed 158 people throughout its duration - addressing DoC's jobs for nature goal in 2020 during Covid-19. Project manager Gordon Cribb said the project had been based around a relationship with the Whanganui River and guided by Tupua te Kawa - the value system that recognised the interdependence of the land and river. 'We've kept the project team small to efficiently bring together local suppliers and businesses with landowners to get the work done – 68 contractors and five nurseries have been connected to a wide range of landowners via 136 expressions of interest," Cribb said. Cribb, who has been involved with the project since 2022, said fencing stock out of wetlands and tributaries was a priority. 'It mitigates pollution by reducing the amount of sediment going into waterways, as well as supporting landowners to comply with the stock exclusion regulations,' he said. Many of the fenced areas have been planted with natives, with pest control in place to keep the survival rate high. 'The only way we're going to see an improvement in water quality, biodiversity and ecosystem health is through collective efforts across all landowner types. It's encouraging to see farmers, hapū, marae and community groups taking ownership of the restoration work.' With the funding set to be cut when the contract ends in September, Ngā Tāngata Tiaki is looking at other funding sources to continue the work. 'We are looking to gain other interested parties to move the project forward so it doesn't just stop,' Cribb said. 'It will be a shame for all this foundational work with contractors, landowners and our streamlined system to come to a halt because of funding.' The project has not reached its goal of planting 630,000 native plants but is on track to hit the 190km of fencing and pest control goal by September. Cribb said the experience had been a great opportunity to build relationships with landowners and contractors as well as create employment, which the project set out to do. 'The heart of the purpose is looking after Te Awa Tupua - it's given us the opportunity to be engaged with that,' he said. DoC senior biodiversity ranger Jane Taylor said the project had shown the power of true partnership. 'By working together with whānau, hapū, iwi and local communities, we're seeing real progress for the health and wellbeing of Te Awa Tupua,' Taylor said. 'These outcomes reflect what's possible when restoration is guided by the values of the river itself.'
Boston Globe
07-05-2025
- Boston Globe
Peter Lovesey, a master of British whodunits, dies at 88
Advertisement Bingo. He had his subject. Yet as his wife pointed out, 'The Go-as-You-Please Murders' didn't exactly captivate as a title. Then Mr. Lovesey recalled that the newspapers of the era called the races 'wobbles.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'There's your title,' she told him: ''Wobble to Death.'' The book, with its irresistible title, won the prize, and it was published to critical and popular acclaim in 1970. Lovesey would go on to write more than 40 mysteries, a quarter of them Victorian-era police procedurals. Over his half-century career, he won more mystery awards than there is space to list and proved to be a master practitioner of brainy whodunits in the classic English tradition, presiding over the genre's second golden age, along with peers like P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. Advertisement Mr. Lovesey died April 10 at his home in Shrewsbury, in western England. He was 88. His son, Phil, said the cause was pancreatic cancer. 'Wobble to Death' introduced the sharp and unflappable Sergeant Cribb and his stolid sidekick, Constable Thackeray. When the publisher handed Mr. Lovesey his winnings, he asked what the next book would be. Mr. Lovesey, stunned, hopped to it, and he was soon churning out one witty puzzler featuring Cribb and Thackeray every year. 'The Detective Wore Silk Drawers' (1971) involved bare-knuckle boxing, which was illegal in late-19th-century London. 'Abracadaver' (1972) was set in a music hall. In subsequent books, the pair investigated a series of bombings by Irish nationalists, a seaside murder, and another murder that began with a false confession. By 1975, the year 'A Case of Spirits,' Mr. Lovesey's sixth book, was published — it involved a séance and an art theft — he had quit his day job. When, in 1979, the books were adapted by British television as a series starring Alan Dobie as Sergeant Cribb, with many of the screenplays written by Mr. Lovesey and his wife, he decided he'd had enough. 'I was delighted by the casting of Alan Dobie as my detective, Sergeant Cribb, but in a strange way he inhabited the character so powerfully that when I came to think about further books all I could see was Alan's face,' he told an interviewer. 'I'd lost my original character somewhere in the process. Moreover, I used up my stock of settings to write the second series with Jax's help. The cupboard was bare.' Enter the hapless, hedonistic and amiable Prince Albert, the future King Edward VII and Mr. Lovesey's next hero. As depicted by Mr. Lovesey, he was an accidental amateur detective who blundered and blustered his way through three cases — and three popular books. Newgate Callendar, in his New York Times review of the first one, 'Bertie and the Tinman' (1988), which begins with the apparent suicide of Britain's most popular jockey, called it a 'delightful romp' with 'a strong dash of P.G. Wodehouse.' Advertisement A few years later, Mr. Lovesey turned to the present with 'The Last Detective' (1991), in which a short-tempered, overweight, and technology-averse superintendent named Peter Diamond investigates the murder of a former soap star in the city of Bath. There are historical touches — a side plot involves letters from Jane Austen — but mostly it's about Diamond's struggle with modernity, and his own brutish failings. 'I knew little about police procedure or forensic science,' Mr. Lovesey said last year. 'To hide my ignorance, I made Peter Diamond the last of a vanishing generation of Scotland Yard men who beat up suspects, disregarded the rules, and despised the men in white coats. He came to genteel Bath, created mayhem, and solved a difficult crime in his rough-and-ready way.' Twenty-one Peter Diamond mysteries followed, throughout which the irascible detective mellowed slightly while Mr. Lovesey entangled him in ever more inventive plots. The last, 'Against the Grain,' which involved a murder in a grain silo and Diamond's retirement, was published last year. Except for the grumpy part, Mr. Lovesey's son said, Superintendent Diamond was a stand-in for his creator, who was bitterly opposed to technology. Mr. Lovesey wrote in longhand for decades before briefly and reluctantly switching to an electric 'golf ball' Olivetti typewriter and then, finally, a word processor, which threw him entirely. During the pandemic, his son said, he mistakenly downloaded Zoom 25 times. Advertisement Peter Harmer Lovesey was born Sept. 10, 1936, in Whitton, Middlesex, now a suburb of London. He was one of three sons of Amy (Strank) Lovesey and Richard Lovesey, a bank clerk. Peter's life was upended in 1944, when his semidetached house was bombed by the Germans while he was at school. His younger brothers, who were at home, survived; all the members of the family who lived in the other half of the house were killed. For a time, the Loveseys were evacuated to a farm in southwest England. Peter graduated from the University of Reading in Essex, where he studied art, but switched to English after he met and fell in love with Jacqueline Lewis. They married in 1959. Mr. Lovesey did his national service with the Royal Air Force, which involved duties as, he said, 'a pilot officer who piloted nothing and a flying officer who didn't fly.' He then taught at various colleges and wrote his first book, 'The Kings of Distance' (1968), about five real-life distance runners. During the Cribb-to-Bertie period, Mr. Lovesey wrote a few contemporary novels, some under the pseudonym Peter Lear, including 'Goldengirl' (1977), about the exploitation of an Olympic track star, which was made into a 1979 film starring Susan Anton. 'The False Inspector Dew' (1982), set on the ocean liner Mauritania, imagines an alternate fate for Hawley Harvey Crippen, whose murder of his wife was a cause célèbre in 1910. 'On the Edge' (1989), written under his own name, was about two former members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during World War II who were aircraft 'plotters' — or air traffic controllers, crucial during the Battle of Britain — but were bored to tears once the war was over and hatched a plan to murder each other's repulsive husbands. Marilyn Stasio of the Times praised the book's 'joie de mort.' Advertisement In addition to his son, Mr. Lovesey is survived by his wife; a daughter, Kathy Hill; and five grandchildren. Mr. Lovesey was well known not just for his writing but for weaving excerpts from his fan mail into his speeches. He was particularly fond of this correspondence from a female reader: 'I have not written to thank you because I assumed you died many years ago,' she wrote. 'My husband says he thinks you may still be alive. We had quite an argument about it last night. I suppose it does not really matter, but we would be most grateful to have the question cleared up.' This article originally appeared in
New York Times
28-04-2025
- New York Times
Peter Lovesey, a Master of British Whodunits, Is Dead at 88
Peter Lovesey was working as a college lecturer in 1968 when he answered an ad in The Times of London offering a thousand pounds for the best crime novel written by a novice. The prize was more than his annual salary. He had already written a book about the history of distance runners, and his wife, Jacqueline, known as Jax, thought there might be something to mine there. Thus prodded, he remembered the peculiar and grueling Victorian contests known as 'go-as-you-please,' in which participants ran or walked around the same track, an eighth of a mile, for six days — those who finished would have clocked 600 miles — eating and catnapping when they could, and boosting their performance with stimulants like champagne, coca leaves and strychnine, a pick-me-up in small doses but, of course, a lethal poison in large quantities. Bingo. He had his subject. Yet as his wife pointed out, 'The Go-as-You-Please Murders' didn't exactly captivate as a title. Then Mr. Lovesey recalled that the newspapers of the era called the races 'wobbles.' 'There's your title,' she told him: ''Wobble to Death.'' The book, with its irresistible title, won the prize, and it was published to critical and popular acclaim in 1970. Mr. Lovesey would go on to write more than 40 mysteries, a quarter of them Victorian-era police procedurals. Over his half-century career, he won more mystery awards than there is space to list and proved to be a master practitioner of brainy whodunits in the classic English tradition, presiding over the genre's second golden age, along with peers like P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. Mr. Lovesey died on April 10 at his home in Shrewsbury, in western England. He was 88. His son, Phil, said the cause was pancreatic cancer. 'Wobble to Death' introduced the sharp and unflappable Sergeant Cribb and his stolid sidekick, Constable Thackeray. When the publisher handed Mr. Lovesey his winnings, he asked what the next book would be. Mr. Lovesey, stunned, hopped to it, and he was soon churning out one witty puzzler featuring Cribb and Thackeray every year. 'The Detective Wore Silk Drawers' (1971) involved bare-knuckle boxing, which was illegal in late-19th-century London. 'Abracadaver' (1972) was set in a music hall. In subsequent books, the pair investigated a series of bombings by Irish nationalists, a seaside murder and another murder that began with a false confession. By 1975, the year 'A Case of Spirits,' Mr. Lovesey's sixth book, was published — it involved a séance and an art theft — he had quit his day job. When, in 1979, the books were adapted by British television as a series starring Alan Dobie as Sergeant Cribb, with many of the screenplays written by Mr. Lovesey and his wife, he decided he'd had enough. 'I was delighted by the casting of Alan Dobie as my detective, Sergeant Cribb, but in a strange way he inhabited the character so powerfully that when I came to think about further books all I could see was Alan's face,' he told an interviewer. 'I'd lost my original character somewhere in the process. Moreover, I used up my stock of settings to write the second series with Jax's help. The cupboard was bare.' Enter the hapless, hedonistic and amiable Prince Albert, the future King Edward VII and Mr. Lovesey's next hero. As depicted by Mr. Lovesey, he was an accidental amateur detective who blundered and blustered his way through three cases — and three popular books. Newgate Callendar, in his New York Times review of the first one, 'Bertie and the Tinman' (1988), which begins with the apparent suicide of Britain's most popular jockey, called it a 'delightful romp' with 'a strong dash of P.G. Wodehouse.' A few years later, Mr. Lovesey turned to the present with 'The Last Detective' (1991), in which a short-tempered, overweight and technology-averse superintendent named Peter Diamond investigates the murder of a former soap star in the city of Bath. There are historical touches — a side plot involves letters from Jane Austen — but mostly it's about Diamond's struggle with modernity, and his own brutish failings. 'I knew little about police procedure or forensic science,' Mr. Lovesey said last year. 'To hide my ignorance, I made Peter Diamond the last of a vanishing generation of Scotland Yard men who beat up suspects, disregarded the rules and despised the men in white coats. He came to genteel Bath, created mayhem and solved a difficult crime in his rough-and-ready way.' Twenty-one Peter Diamond mysteries followed, throughout which the irascible detective mellowed slightly while Mr. Lovesey entangled him in ever more inventive plots. The last, 'Against the Grain,' which involved a murder in a grain silo and Diamond's retirement, was published last year. Except for the grumpy part, Mr. Lovesey's son said, Superintendent Diamond was a stand-in for his creator, who was bitterly opposed to technology. Mr. Lovesey wrote in longhand for decades before briefly and reluctantly switching to an electric 'golf ball' Olivetti typewriter and then, finally, a word processor, which threw him entirely. During the pandemic, his son said, he mistakenly downloaded Zoom 25 times. Peter Harmer Lovesey was born on Sept. 10, 1936, in Whitton, Middlesex, now a suburb of London. He was one of three sons of Amy (Strank) Lovesey and Richard Lovesey, a bank clerk. Peter's life was upended in 1944, when his semidetached house was bombed by the Germans while he was at school. His younger brothers, who were at home, survived; all the members of the family who lived in the other half of the house were killed. For a time, the Loveseys were evacuated to a farm in southwest England. Peter graduated from the University of Reading in Essex, where he studied art, but switched to English after he met and fell in love with Jacqueline Lewis. They married in 1959. Mr. Lovesey did his national service with the Royal Air Force, which involved duties as, he said, 'a pilot officer who piloted nothing and a flying officer who didn't fly.' He then taught at various colleges and wrote his first book, 'The Kings of Distance' (1968), about five real-life distance runners. During the Cribb-to-Bertie period, Mr. Lovesey wrote a few contemporary novels, some under the pseudonym Peter Lear, including 'Goldengirl' (1977), about the exploitation of an Olympic track star, which was made into a 1979 film starring Susan Anton. 'The False Inspector Dew' (1982), set on the ocean liner Mauritania, imagines an alternate fate for Hawley Harvey Crippen, whose murder of his wife was a cause célèbre in 1910. 'On the Edge' (1989), written under his own name, was about two former members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during World War II who were aircraft 'plotters' — or air traffic controllers, crucial during the Battle of Britain — but were bored to tears once the war was over and hatched a plan to murder each other's repulsive husbands. Marilyn Stasio of The Times praised the book's 'joie de mort.' In addition to his son, Mr. Lovesey is survived by his wife; a daughter, Kathy Hill; and five grandchildren. Mr. Lovesey was well known not just for his writing but for weaving excerpts from his fan mail into his speeches. He was particularly fond of this correspondence from a female reader: 'I have not written to thank you because I assumed you died many years ago,' she wrote. 'My husband says he thinks you may still be alive. We had quite an argument about it last night. I suppose it does not really matter, but we would be most grateful to have the question cleared up.'
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Reko Diq ‘breaking down barriers' in Pakistan's mining industry, says project manager
The Reko Diq gold and copper mine in Pakistan has reached levels of progress as yet unseen in the project's decades long history. On 8 April, the mine's updated feasibility study and conditional related phase one development capital was approved. Following this breakthrough, Reko Diq project manager Tim Cribb spoke to Mining Technology from the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum (PMIF) about the next steps for the mine. 'The good thing about the project is that we have buy-in at the federal as well as the provincial level. Now that the feasibility study is complete, we have a pathway forward and can focus on the delivery of the construction and mobilising people,' he said. Currently, the mine is jointly owned by Canadian miner Barrick Gold (50%), the Pakistan Government (25%) and the Government of Balochistan (25%). Saudi Arabian mining fund Manara Minerals is also set to purchase a 10–20% stake valued at between $500m (SR1.88bn) and $1bn from the Pakistan Government. The phase one approval for Reko Diq is contingent on limited recourse project financing of $3bn (C$4.26bn). If this is secured, works can commence in 2025 in line with the target for first production by the end of 2028. In addition, the World Bank's private investment arm, the International Finance Corporation, is providing $300m in debt financing for the mine. According to the latest feasibility study, Reko Diq is estimated to contain 15 million tonnes of proven and probable copper reserves, as well as 26 million ounces of gold. The project will comprise two open-pit mines and a processing plant, operating over an estimated 37-year life of mine. The mill is expected to process 45 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of ore from 2028, expanding to 90mtpa in phase two, planned from 2034. Cribb confirmed that recent progress has been exciting, but there is still much work to be done before Reko Diq can deliver on its full potential. A range of mining services and equipment providers have secured contracts for work on Reko Diq. On 3 April, a deal was announced with mining services company Capital for early civil works and the construction and maintenance of a tailings storage facility. Following this, during the PMIF, Fluor Corporation was announced as the lead engineering, procurement and construction management partner. 'A lot of construction work occurs internationally, off site, as the equipment is manufactured,' explained Cribb. 'In 2026, much of that equipment will start arriving at site – so preparations for large transport and logistics work is ongoing,' he added. Other processing and mining equipment providers to the project include industry heavyweights such as Metso, Weir, Komatsu and Caterpillar. 'You always need to bring in international expertise when you start off in new regions,' said Cribb. 'Large-scale mining equipment is not available in the local market, so part of the challenge has been bringing key suppliers into Pakistan.' As for the integration of technological advancement such as automation and AI into the mine once it is operational, Cribb has a balanced outlook as project manager. 'There is obviously risk in big projects," Cribb said. "We want to minimise that by ensuring that everything we do is tried and tested before building them into Reko Diq, but we also want to leave opportunities open for automation or battery technology and the like. "We have kept that as the thesis for the work to realise efficiency and cost-benefits,' he added. As demand for critical minerals skyrockets, global attention is increasingly turning towards Pakistan's relatively untapped reserves of 92 total discovered minerals. Critical minerals were reportedly a key topic of discussion between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in a meeting on 7 April. The Reko Diq project has a significant role to play in this upward trajectory, being situated in the world-renowned Tethyan copper belt near Pakistan's borders with Iran and Afghanistan. Cribb confirmed that despite the instabilities of the region, the site itself is 'relatively peaceful'. Barrick Gold has established social development and training programmes for the local community and employees, with the aim of building a domestic workforce of 4,000 long-term workers that are skilled in operating mining equipment. The project workforce could peak at 7,500 during construction. The project is also expected to produce $74bn in free cash flow over the next 37 years, according to Barrick Gold CEO Mark Bristow. Barrick Gold's commitment to Reko Diq's potential is such that chairman John Thornton cited the project in a proposal to rebrand the company to Barrick Mining to reflect its push into copper operations. Cribb told Mining Technology that the scale of Reko Diq will 'break down barriers in Pakistan's mining supply chain, especially for future exploration and deposits'. 'There is so much potential in Pakistan and we are looking at other exploration opportunities,' he concluded. "Reko Diq 'breaking down barriers' in Pakistan's mining industry, says project manager" was originally created and published by Mining Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. 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Express Tribune
10-04-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
Barrick Gold targets $2b financing for Reko Diq copper-gold project
Tim Cribb, Barrick Gold's Project Director For Pakistan's Reko Diq, speaks during an interview with Reuters, during the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum 2025, in Islamabad, Pakistan April 8, 2025. REUTERS/Ariba Shahid/File Photo Listen to article Barrick Gold is looking to secure upwards of $2 billion in financing for its Reko Diq copper and gold project in Pakistan, with term sheets expected to be finalised by early Q3 2025, according to the project's director. The funding will support the development of Reko Diq, one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits globally, which is expected to generate $70 billion in free cash flow and $90 billion in operating cash flow. Reko Diq is a joint venture between Barrick Gold, the governments of Pakistan and Balochistan. The project's phase one financing, estimated to start production in 2028, is currently being negotiated with multiple international lenders. Tim Cribb, Barrick Gold's Project Director for Reko Diq, revealed in an interview at the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum 2025 that the mine is seeking $650 million in financing from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the International Development Association (IDA). Additionally, the project is in talks with the US Export-Import Bank for financing of $500 million to $1 billion, as well as securing $500 million from various development finance institutions, including the Asian Development Bank, Export Development Canada, and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. "We expect to close the term sheet in late Q2 or early Q3," said Cribb. The Reko Diq project has recently seen an upgrade in its scope. The phase one throughput will increase to 45 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from 40 mtpa, and the phase two throughput will rise to 90 mtpa from 80 mtpa. Consequently, the mine's life has been adjusted from 42 years to 37 years, though Barrick believes additional unaccounted minerals may extend the life to up to 80 years. The cost of phase one has also risen to $5.6 billion from $4 billion. Cribb also mentioned that railway financing talks are progressing, with infrastructure costs estimated between $500 million and $800 million, with the initial cost pegged at $350 million. The financing deal is expected to be supported by offtake agreements, with potential clients from Asia, including Japan and Korea, as well as European countries like Sweden and Germany, looking to secure copper supplies for their industries.
