Environmental & Social Services

Effective stakeholder engagement requires communicating with stakeholders early in the decision-making process to foster constructive relationships, provide opportunities for collaboration and facilitate stakeholder’s ability to participate early in decisions that may affect their lives. Providing proactive and transparent information to stakeholders early also reduces risks of rumour, speculation, misinformation and...

For projects of regional significance, strategic assessment in upfront planning is essential. SRK South Africa used this approach in a long-haul fibre optic data cable and a solar energy photovoltaic plant. In 2011 FibreCo Telecommunications appointed SRK Johannesburg to undertake environmental studies for the prefeasibility and feasibility phases of a...

SRK China has conducted numerous environmental due diligence projects in China’s mining industry. Based on our site observations, some major environmental issues are either not covered by current Chinese Environmental regulations or not dealt with properly due to a lack of law enforcement. Site contamination assessment has not been required...

Implementing an environmental management system (EMS) can be a tough mission, even for a consultant with experience in about 20 EMSs at mines and processing plants, and who has reviewed environmental management at several mines worldwide. Environmental management is usually not the highest priority at a mine, and, achieving ISO14001...

The National Instrument (NI) 43-101 is a standard of disclosure developed by the Canadian securities regulatory agencies for mineral projects. Section 20 of a NI 43-101 technical report summarises the available environmental information related to the project; the Qualified Person (QP) then discusses the potential material impacts. Topics required include...

Mining is a transient activity, prompting critics to doubt the ability of the industry to live up to ambitious claims of sustainability, especially in the communities that host or neighbour the mines and feel the impacts of mining activities. Many former mining towns in Africa and around the world have...

Extracting coal can often have significant environmental impacts including altered landscapes, lowered air quality and deterioration of water resources by extracting clean water, decanting dirty water and Acid Mine Drainage (AMD). While advances in mining techniques have reduced many negative impacts traditionally associated with coal mining, the paradox exists: industry...

Traditionally, mining companies have based their budgets for closure and rehabilitation on unconditional performance bonds lodged with the Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP), Western Australia. This can leave companies unprepared for the cost of closing a mine site, as bonds only provide for a portion of rehabilitation costs. In...

SRK was appointed by Suralco LLC, a subsidiary of Alcoa, the world’s largest miner of bauxite and refiner of alumina, to work closely with Alcoa staff in preparing an Integrated Closure Plan (ICP) for its landholdings and concessions located in the Commewijne, Marowijne and Para Districts of Suriname. The ICP...

To implement a successful environmental management plan, consider three things: 1. Know what is in your plan: Presumably, you know what commitments have been made in your environmental management plan. But do you know what other commitments have been made in other documents associated with your plan? Are they consistent...

Regardless of the jurisdiction, a good project description is critical to any environmental and social impact assessment study. Detailed project background information included in the ESIA is mostly extracted from the information generated during the engineering prefeasibility and feasibility studies. However, acquisition of some critical background information may not usually...

Consultants often use handheld GPS technology to capture simple point information in the field, cross-referencing additional information recorded on a field notebook and field map. The GPS, notebook and map data require time-consuming integration back in the office. With improvements in GIS/GPS technologies, SRK Australia has developed paperless workflows/techniques, using...