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MODERN MINING
May 2015
MINING News
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
SRK’s Cape Town office makes inroads in Suriname
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
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.
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
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.”