Commissioned by the South African Water Research Commission, and launched by South Africa’s Water and Sanitation Minister, Nomvula Mokonyane, at the 2017 UN Water Summit in Durban, Golder has produced the country’s first Mine Water Atlas, designed to be a tool for those with an interest in water resources from all sectors to broaden understanding of water vulnerabilities and the challenges facing communities and mines, leading to better decision making.
The Atlas gives a detailed description of mining and water resources, a ground water vulnerability model, surface water threat model, and a geo-environmental risk model. The project consolidated multiple existing but fragmented data points covering mineralogy, water quality, flow, ecology, and hydrogeology, to provide a comprehensive national water resource overview.
Expected users include the mining sector, government departments, researchers, students, and even the banking sector as it assess water as a risk when determining investment potential.
