Born in 1945, Michael Coulson has been associated with the mining sector for over thirty years, although his university background is in economics where he holds a BSc from the University of London. He first worked as a graduate trainee on the legendary mining desk at James Capel in 1970, for many years the leading mining stockbroker in the City. After that he became a mining salesman at Sterling & Co and also developed the firm’s research coverage of the sector. In 1973 he joined Fielding Newson-Smith (later to become NatWest Markets) as a gold mining analyst where he began a long association with the South African gold mining industry. Two years later he became senior mining analyst at L Messel (latterly Lehman Bros) where he started to produce an annual gold review which he published every year until 1991. In 1979 he moved to Panmure Gordon and in 1982 he left and joined Phillips & Drew (UBS) with the task of establishing the firm in the mining market. After a successful four years there, where two years running he was voted No 2 gold analyst in the Extel Analysts Survey, he moved to Kitcat & Aitken where he set up a highly regarded integrated mining desk. In 1990 the firm’s Canadian owners closed the firm and he was briefly with County NatWest. The following year he set up a small mining team at Durlacher, but in 1992 was back in the mainstream at Credit Lyonnais Laing where he was a salesman/analyst on the firm’s specialist mining team and established an expertise in African shares. He was then approached by South African bank, Nedcor, to join a start-up broking operation the bank was establishing in London. This operation was closed in 1997 and the following year he joined Paribas to head its Global Mining Team. He left Paribas in 2000 following the completion of the merger with BNP. Since then he has been doing independent research, mainly on a commissioned basis, primarily for small UK brokers lacking mining expertise. He is currently a non executive director of City Natural Resources High Yield Trust and of Canadian exploration junior Moneta Porcupine. Michael is also the author of The History of Mining: The events, technology and people involved in the industry that forged the modern world (9781897597903). He lives in Wandsworth with his wife and has three daughters. He has a lifelong passion for cricket and football and also enjoys a glass or two of wine sitting in his moderately well cultivated garden listening to music from another age!