Modern Mining May 2015

MINING News

SRK’s Cape Town office makes inroads in Suriname

an assessment of every conceivable impact a mine could have on its environment, said Dalgliesh. “Looming large was the prospect of a mine impacting the state of Suriname’s indigenous forest, and there was little baseline data to work from,” he said. “Indigenous Amerindian communities with unofficial title to land, could be affected; and a suite of international Non- Governmental Organisations also closely scrutinised the EIA process.” The scope of the EIA extended beyond the mine site to include the transportation route that the mined bauxite would have to traverse – including 150 km down the Corantijn River on the border with Guiana, 250  km along the coastline, and 75 km up the Suriname River to an alumina refinery. “Perhaps one of our most important contributions to date has been to set the benchmark for best practice in environ- mental and social impact assessments, as Suriname is still in the process of devel- oping its own regulations in this regard,” said Dalgliesh. “Our experience in apply- ing global standards such as the Equator Principles – and our familiarity with rel- evant regulations in mining countries around the world – meant we were well placed to conduct work of the highest quality in Suriname.” SRK’s close relationship with the coun- try’s National Institute for Environment and Development (Nationaal Institut voor Milieu en Ontwikkeling in Suriname, or NIMOS) has led to its engagement by government to help accredit local skills. As part of this process, Dalgliesh recently conducted training on behalf of NIMOS for certain of the Institute’s staff mem- bers, as well about 30 local environmental consultants. Other than bauxite, oil is also an impor- tant commodity for Suriname, and SRK has conducted EIAs for state-owned, integrated oil company Staatsolie; other government clients have included the country’s most important energy supplier, Energiebedrijven Suriname (EBS). “Making communication easier for us is the fact that, while Dutch is the official language, it is spoken in a manner that Afrikaans-speakers can readily understand – quite a rare cultural advantage for our Western Cape team!” said Dalgliesh. 

The Bakhuis bauxite project exploration camp, West Suriname.

Starting a mining operation in a country covered mainly by pristine rainforest is bound to be a challenging task, but SRK Consulting’s Cape Town office has for over a decade been successfully applying its environmental and social impact expertise in just such a place. The fact that Suriname, South America’s smallest independent country, is almost 9 000 km away across the Atlantic Ocean has not prevented SRK partner and prin- cipal environmental consultant Chris Dalgliesh and his team from develop- ing strong working links there with a substantial network of clients and local consultants. “Our work in Suriname began in 2003, when we were asked to assist our SRK col- leagues in the United Kingdom with an urgent project,” said Dalgliesh. “We placed one of our environmental specialists in Suriname for a three-month period, and this led to us working on other contracts

and becoming increasingly involved with colleagues in our field in Suriname.” This initial project led to SRK involve- ment in about half a dozen mid-size environmental impact assessments (EIAs) in Suriname. The work progressively raised SRK’s profile until a very large bauxite venture engaged its input. The project envisaged a potential mine life of 50 years or more, and covered a massive 2 800 square kilometre concession – therefore holding significant environmental and other impacts. “This was a mega-project with very high stakes for all involved, and we man- aged the EIA process for over three years, with a large team almost permanently on the job,” he said. “It was an extremely busy time in which we made close to 50 visits to site and attended meetings all over the world with the various stakeholders and the client.” Given its location, the project required output from 2 Mt to 4 Mt by 2016 with a 12 to 15 year lifespan,” Sulaiman says. “In anticipation of acquiring the licence, we have ensured that everything is in place for us to go into production as safely and quickly as possible. The Muhanga coal pro- cessing plant which we purchased for R40 million is just 18 km from the mine and has been processing since November 2014 using excess Run Of Mine (ROM) in the mar- ket to supply the existing customer base. It will now process the Elandspruit ROM as planned.” 

Wescoal granted water use licence for Elandspruit Wescoal Mining, the junior coal miner and supplier, has been granted a water use licence for its Elandspruit mine and will commence with project execution immi- nently according to acting CEO Waheed Sulaiman The fast–tracking of this proj- ect will be enhanced with the aid of a R200‑million funding facility from Investec Bank Limited though its Corporate and Institutional Banking Division.

“It is a benchmark in the group’s devel- opment as Elandspruit will become our flagship mine doubling our annual coal

8  MODERN MINING  May 2015