NATURAL RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT

Our multi-disciplinary expertise provides Earth Systems with the skills to tackle natural resource management and development projects.

We are familiar and experienced in working in a variety of terrain and climate types from ecosystems as diverse as tropical montane rainforests to arid dune environments.

Some of the key services provided by Earth Systems in this sector include:
Natural resource assessments and sustainability planning
Baseline environmental assessments
Flora and fauna surveys
Marine and freshwater ecology
Archaeology and anthropology
Materials characterisation including chemical, geochemical, petrographic and mineralogical analysis
Chemical and geochemical studies and investigations
Acid drainage prediction, evaluation, management and monitoring including acid-base accounting
Mine water and wastewater management
Tailings and waste rock management
Mine waste rehabilitation
Environmental compliance monitoring and audits

Earth Systems studied the impacts of land use practices such as shifting cultivation, grassland burning and mining on catchment processes in the Watut River of Papua New Guinea. Earth Systems has undertaken environmental assessments and baseline studies for natural resource projects in many different geographic settings within Australia, PNG, Argentina, Indonesia and Laos.

Recent projects completed by Earth Systems include:
Review of environmental issues affecting coal mining development in India. Key issues identified and considered included potential impacts on biodiversity, indigenous groups, water quality, protected forests, resettlement of displaced communities and permitting requirements.
Assistance in the preparation of the EMOS (Environmental Management and Overview Strategy) for the major zinc mining development, Century, in north-west Queensland.
Environmental assessment and investigation of the environmental effects of past mining activity (including acid mine drainage), and collection of baseline environmental data (water, sediment, land use, ecology, pictorial record) for a historical mine site in Argentina.
Program design and site management for Stage II of rehabilitation at the abandoned Agricola Gold Mine, Queensland. This involved treatment of acid drainage with elevated copper concentrations to a standard suitable for discharge to a local waterway within the Conondale Ranges National Park.