Modern Quarrying July-August 2016

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July - August 2016 MODERN QUARRYING 7
AROUND THE INDUSTRY
Call for Fulton Awards nominations
The Concrete Society of Southern Africa NPC is calling for nom-
inations for its prestigious biennial Fulton Awards, which recog-
nise and honour excellence and innovation in the design and
use of concrete. The awards continue to celebrate the legacy of
scientific and technological advances in concrete within the built
environment, and the late Dr Sandy Fulton’s life and achieve-
ments in the industry.
The 2017 awards take on a new look with brand new cate-
gories and a new approach to judging, with PPC once again the
anchor sponsor for the awards.
“We had drifted away from identifying all that was excep-
tional in the concrete,”explains CEO and director of the Concrete
Society, John Sheath, “and in the opinion of the Fulton Awards
Committee, we were focusing too much on the total project on
hand, considering aspects that had little to do with the material.”
The deadline for nominations is August 31, 2016, while the
completed entry packs have to be submitted by the end of
November 2016. The award winners will be announced at a spe-
cial gala weekend in the Drakensburg from June 2-4, 2017.
Visit for full details of the 2017 awards.
A 2015 Fulton Award winner: Fairscape Precinct office tower, Botswana.
Roadmap for water use licence compliance
As many mines grapple with the complexities of
implementing and renewing their water use licences
(WULs), global consultant engineers and scientists SRK
Consulting, has prepared a manageable system to sim-
plify this process – completewith a training programme
to put all those responsible on the same page.
SRK Africa principal scientist Jacky Burke says
obtaining and implementing aWUL are onerous tasks
which many mining operations find overwhelming.
“Our approach is to get back to basics and to help
clients implement a sustainable process with clear
designation of roles, backed up by the necessary data
collection and supporting technology.”
She emphasises that the WUL is not just a com-
pliance issue but needs to be embraced by mines as
a valuable tool to help manage water resources and
to make their operations more cost efficient. “While
the WUL focuses on protecting all water resources –
by limiting the quantity of what is abstracted from
surface and groundwater sources and ensuring the
quality of what is returned to the resource – there is
also increasing attention paid to preventing pollution
from diffuse sources and conserving water through
reuse,” she says.
This gives mines the opportunity to further
enhance their water saving efforts and their water
use efficiency plans.
“SRK is frequently involved in auditing the imple-
mentation of WULs for mining clients, so we see the
recurring difficulties and have addressed these in our
training and our tools,” Burke says.
SRK Consulting Africa’s
principal scientist Jacky
Burke.
Land rehab conference
The Land Rehabilitation Society Southern Africa (LaRSSA) is
holding its fourth annual conference in Kimberley, from 13-16
September this year. Under the banner of The Rehabilitation
Business Case, it has invited submission of applied case studies
and research initiatives on the following themes:
• improving ecosystem function for long-term gain;
• harnessing the intrinsic value of rehabilitation for
communities;
• improving the economic gains from rehabilitation;
• understanding the business indicators for successful rehabil-
itation; and
• identifying funding for rehabilitation.
The conference will offer something for anyone with an interest
in land rehabilitation – miners, farmers, land owners, conserva-
tionists, practitioners, regulators and researchers. The conference
again offers CPD opportunities in the form of a pre-conference
workshop and post-conference site visits.