Petra recognises that its greatest asset is its people and that its success depends on the team tasked with delivering the Company’s strategy.
Case Studies
Q&A with Anja van Deventer
Petra’s Group Rehabilitation and Closure Specialist
What are your key responsibilities?
My key responsibility is to ensure that our operations are legally compliant in matters that entail rehabilitation, closure and financial provision for closure. I have also developed a Rehabilitation Strategy to steer the operations towards sustainable closure objectives. We compile annual rehabilitation plans as well as a closure plan for each mine and these plans are evaluated on an annual basis.
I particularly enjoy conducting LFAs on rehabilitated areas to determine the benchmark for initial rehabilitation, evaluate older rehabilitation and to evaluate the stability of historical sites. The aim is to scientifically validate the rehabilitation status and to remove the given area from the financial provision for closure.
Petra’s operations make up a significant part of the South African and Tanzanian diamond industry heritage and therefore keeping these historical gems alive within the boundaries of the closure objectives is a key focus for me.
What do you find most challenging about your position?
Some rehabilitation and closure concepts are “foreign” to those who are not used to environmental jargon. I have therefore had to reinvent my way of communicating with different levels and departments within the Company in order to convey the improvement possibilities of concurrent rehabilitation.
The challenge of finding practical, elegant solutions to complex problems keeps me motivated. There is no “one size fits all” solution for the closure strategy for Petra’s operations as the community needs, physical properties of the material and weather conditions will differ in each area. This is something I have to take into account when working on our strategy.
Why do you think there seems to be an increase in interest in mine rehabilitation and closure?
Mining has often been seen in a negative light, due to its impact on resources and ecological functions, however, the current trend to find alternative land-uses in mining impacted areas that will increase the production potential of so called “derelict land” has garnered significant interest.
Through mine rehabilitation, areas are now being transformed into positive, contributing resources and some of the most exciting efforts in this area include finding renewable energy options for “problem areas”.
Biomimicry is another extremely exiting area of development in the rehabilitation arena, where lessons are taken from nature and implemented in technology with minimum impact on the environment. The overall aim is to find synergies with the natural environment in order to boost the social and economic environment.
What do you think will change about mine rehabilitation and closure over the next five years?
The traditional greening of mine impacted land for the sake of “doing it” will totally disappear, we will plan to restore or alter ecosystem functions. Adaptability for climate change will be a necessity, effluent will be viewed as a resource rather than something that needs to be discarded, the assistance of micro-organisms will have an unfathomable contribution and the reduction (and even positive offsetting) of carbon will influence production as well as future investment.
