Quarry Management: Consideration of Water Aspects During Due Diligence

Envireau Water’s very own Deborah Thomas, Chris Woodhouse and James Dodds recently gave their take on the importance of the consideration of water aspects during due diligence, sharing some useful insight.

Since January 2018 any quarry starting to dewater has needed to apply for a ‘dewatering licence’, a long and convoluted process we have described before. Over the last five years the industry and its consultants have gained experience of the process, its costs and frustrations, but in our experience the lessons learned are not being considered early enough in the project life cycle.

The consequences of not spotting water-related challenges early can result in expensive delays - over the last few years we have come across numerous examples where challenges have only been identified late in the project development process and have caused disproportionate impacts on the project. In all the cases, early and more water-specific due diligence would have significantly reduced costs and, more specifically, timescales of commencing mineral extraction.

The editorial below featured in Agg-Net’s April Edition of Quarry Management, demonstrating how it is critical that water-related challenges are identified early in the project lifecycle and that the implications are considered. Our experts offer some top tips to minimise cost and delay...