Industry may not have the capacity, or desire, to retain these skills and specialisations in-house during these difficult times.

Woodfull said SRK, which had been operating for 40 years, focused on adding value to its clients’ projects by finding and retaining the right people across project evaluation, exploration, and a range of geological and engineering disciplines.

“By finding and retaining quality staff, over the years, SRK has developed a reputation for delivering high quality, independent services,” he told ICN.

“The SRK name is associated with independence, which is very important for resource companies that are seeking finance. SRK is strictly a consultancy organisation, owned by our staff, and SRK does not hold equity in any project. This allows us to provide clients with conflict-free and objective support and advice on crucial issues.

“Also, our organisation has always put energy in finding new and better ways to do things.”

SRK has more than 1,500 employees in more than 20 countries on six continents.

For the coal sector, while SRK provides a broad range of geological services, its engineering service offering is more focused on project evaluation – including technical economic and exploration asset valuations, open cut geotechnical engineering, surface and underground water management, tailings design, mine closure, geochemistry, and environmental services.

Coal exploration activity is very subdued at present, according to Woodfull.

“Over the past two years, it has been a tough time for the Australian industry, including the coal sector, and industry has responded by focusing on reducing costs of operations, focusing their exploration expenditure on near operation or brownfields opportunities, and generally minimising exploration expenditure,” he said.

“From a consulting perspective, it is all about understanding client requirements and how they want to achieve this.

“For example, some clients may opt for assessing and applying for new exploration areas while others prefer evaluating and acquiring or joint venturing on more advanced exploration projects. As a general rule, it is important to be able to carefully plan and maintain a staged approach to exploration, right from the project generation stage, through targeted exploration to resource definition.

“At the project generation stage, it is important to select the best possible ground in line with the strategic objectives of the company. Gaining an understanding of regional controls on coal development, post-depositional structure, coal rank trends, and depth of cover are important in helping to identify potentially more prospective areas and thereby maximise the chances of exploration success.”

SRK has undertaken a number of regional and smaller-scale coal prospectivity studies for its clients to both develop and prioritise their exploration project portfolios. Regional assessments are generally undertaken according to a set of specific strategic criteria developed in conjunction with our clients.

These may include assessing specific geographical regions for open cut and underground coal, particular coal types or end uses, such as thermal, metallurgical, and coal conversion, infrastructure requirements, and other social considerations.

Over the past 10 years, SRK has developed a number of regional framework studies of the major economic black coal-bearing basins of eastern Australia.

SRK has also developed several intra-basin coalfield scale geological models, which enable regional assessments of distribution, depth and strip ratios for target seam groups.

Through the knowledge gained from these regional studies, SRK had been able to cost effectively and efficiently provide clients with an initial assessment of target areas or projects, Woodfull said.

“At the early exploration stage, it is important to adopt an integrated approach to planning and targeting, bringing together all of the relevant geological information from previous workers to develop a preliminary geological model,” he said.

“In some areas where little or no previous exploration activities have occurred, the model may be largely conceptual, but it should represent the best interpretation of the available geological information. The purpose of drilling during the exploration phase should always be to test a geological model. This ensures a more targeted and therefore, cost-effective program – rather than a scatter or ‘wildcat’ approach.”

As more information comes to hand and some projects progress to the resource evaluation phase, again a carefully planned and staged approach is important, according to Woodfull.

“To be cost-effective, the program should be staged to allow assessment at various points along the way, integrating the new information with the existing understanding of the deposit,” he said.

“It is important that the right information is acquired at the right stages in the overall program to optimise the exploration budget.”

Geophysical surveys should be employed as appropriate to support more-traditional drilling-based exploration.

Project evaluations

As a senior consultant, it is imperative that all relevant technical areas are assessed to understand any material impact they may have on the overall project value and viability, according to Woodfull.

Such technical areas may include geology and resources, mining and reserves, mineral processing, logistics and infrastructure, geotechnical and permitting, and hydrology and hydrogeology.

“The extent to which, individual technical areas will affect the overall project evaluation, varies from project to project,” Woodfull said.

“Many projects may have constraints in logistics, while others may endure challenges in environmental, permitting and the underlying geology and resources.

“In many cases, a technical economic valuation will be required as part of a project evaluation. These valuations take account of relevant forecast operating and capital expenditure for all relevant technical areas of a project and result in an overall project value.

“Ultimately, it becomes an issue of materiality in how the assessment of each technical component contributes to the overall picture. To this end, it is critical that the senior consultant maintains a balanced view of the entire project rather than considering technical areas in isolation, when advising clients.”