Having built a strong reputation in the geotechnical engineering space for more than 50 years, SRK Consulting South Africa (SA) has established its own specialised in-house geotechnical laboratory at its Johannesburg Practice – becoming one of only a few international consulting firms with such a facility.
The dedicated laboratory began operating in February 2025 to streamline and verify testing – especially in the demanding field of tailings management. There is also a strong applied research and skills development aspect to the new laboratory, according to John Stiff, Partner, Engineering Geologist and Department Lead at SRK Consulting SA. Stiff noted that extensive laboratory work has been required to drive mining companies’ alignment to the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM), and this has put added pressure on the capacity of laboratories world-wide.
"Our in-house geotechnical testing facility, which is purely for our own internal purposes, brings many benefits for us and for our clients", he explained. "For a start, it improves the services that we deliver, by allowing us to speed up testing where necessary and to add a layer of quality assurance to results that we request from commercial laboratories".
Driving Skills and Innovation
The facility will also make a vital contribution to the innovation efforts and depth of skills within the company, he emphasised. The specialised SRK professionals managing the in-house geotechnical laboratory will make their colleagues more familiar with the testwork they specify, allowing them to fine-tune their instructions and gain more valuable results from the commercial tests requested. He noted that SRK Consulting had always been a leader in the geotechnical consulting field, and in particular in its application to tailings facilities.
"We are pushing the boundaries of science and engineering in the design and management of tailings storage facilities (TSFs), and need specialist expertise, infrastructure and flexibility to try new approaches", he said. "Not only does the new laboratory give us tools to do this, but it also attracts the kind of people we need to advance the geotechnical discipline as it relates to TSFs".
The laboratory also makes SRK Consulting a more attractive career destination to those researchers and practitioners who want to explore new ideas, he said.
Enquiring Minds
"We are always looking for scientists and engineers with enquiring minds, and tailings is an area of our work where such an approach is more vital than ever", said Stiff. "To attract these kinds of individuals, we need specialised facilities for them to conduct their own research and testwork – aimed at understanding tailings facilities better and reducing the risks".
Aligning TSFs to the stringent requirements of the GISTM over recent years has already led SRK Consulting to partner with Steyn-Wilson Laboratories – providing them with the resources to better serve SRK’s particular needs. The establishment of the in-house geotechnical laboratory is another step in the same journey, he said, which will further raise the company’s game and provide a platform for skills growth and pathbreaking solutions.
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