As the number of drilling announcements has increased steadily over recent months, UK-based SRK Exploration Services is expanding with a new office in Johannesburg; the new offering will be a highlight at SRK’s stand at Investing in African Mining Indaba 2018 currently being held in Cape Town.

SRK Exploration Services, a discipline-led practice within the global SRK Group, has for 15 years supported prospecting and mining companies from the spark of an initial idea through to the definition of mineral resources.

A key player in the establishment of the new Johannesburg office is Bill Brodie Good, a director of SRK Exploration Services. Brodie Good is a principal exploration geologist with 25 years of experience in establishing and managing exploration programmes, predominantly in Africa.

“We are excited by the prospect of what this new office will offer as it gives us the ability to work more closely with SRK South Africa in offering a broad range of field exploration services to clients in the region,” said Oliver Bayley, southern African exploration manager at SRK Exploration Services, based in the Johannesburg office. “These services focus on the execution of exploration programmes – providing support that ranges from a single technical team member to managing and executing every aspect of multi-million-dollar turn-key exploration programmes.

”The company’s capabilities extend to the construction, management and staffing of field exploration camps and in-country support offices – as well as providing safety and security training courses focused specifically on exploration and mining settings.

According to Hennie Theart – corporate consultant, partner and economic geologist at SRK South Africa – the local presence of SRK Exploration Services will allow closer collaboration with the team of senior SRK SA consultants who have provided exploration consulting services for 17 uninterrupted years.

“We have seen that many mining companies do not have the in-house ability to execute exploration programmes that meet international best practice standards,” said Theart. “An integrated consulting and project management exploration function offered from our Johannesburg office will assist clients to conduct quality exploration work – so they can avoid the costly and time-consuming remedial actions that often result from sub-standard exploration processes.

”As exploration becomes more technically challenging, the growing ranks of mid-tier and junior mining companies – who can lack in-house technical ability – has created a rising market for SRK to offer an integrated exploration solution, according to Bayley. In addition to its regular client base of junior explorers, SRK Exploration Services has also seen an increased number of opportunities from established mining companies outsourcing specific brown-field exploration projects – as the commodity downturn has led to the shedding of many traditionally in-house technical skills.

“Due to the reduction of in-house technical capabilities, we have grown our service provision over the last four years,” he said. “Our presence in South Africa will give us a larger exposure to this market, as well as to investment groups and government departments – leveraging our growing range of services.

SRK's Hennie Theart (left) and Oliver Bayley (right).

”Theart also emphasised the value of the collaboration between SRK Exploration Services’ focus on project execution and SRK South Africa’s traditional consulting services.

“Project execution entails the physical geological work in any exploration project, where our well-trained geological staff in the field will ensure that quality and timing objectives are met,” he said. “Close collaboration ensures the seamless flow-through of the required quality information from this work to our consulting functions – including mineral resource estimation, project assessment and valuation, and finally to the multi-disciplinary teams responsible for scoping, pre-feasibility and feasibility studies and related public reports.

”Bayley highlighted the significance of integrity and independence in providing these services for clients, especially in the context of listing or finance raising processes.

“SRK remains one of the only global consultancy groups that is independent, fully employee owned, and with no interests in exploration or mining projects,” he said. “This allows us to provide an internationally recognised, independent service whose integrity can be relied upon by all stakeholders in a mining project.

”Theart also raised the issue of the shortage of experienced and well qualified exploration specialists in the sector.

“Given our global resource base of experts, we are ideally positioned to lead the industry in the new phase of exploration that will follow on the recent doldrums,” he said.

Theart has a lifetime of consulting experience in exploration across various commodities, while Bayley has fifteen years’ international exploration experience across Africa and Australia.

Together with Bayley and Theart, Brodie Good will be part of the SRK team at Stand #608 at the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town from 5-8 February 2018.

Dr Hennie Theart - Partner | Corporate Consultant

Oliver Bayley - Senior Exploration Geologist

Bill Brodie Good - Principal Exploration Geologist