Geological and Resource Assessment

• Prospecting,
• mapping,
• samples taking,
• sample preparation and analysis.
• Applying geographic information systems (GIS),
• remote sensing, and spatial data analysis.
• Applying Geostatistics for resource estimation and modeling.

Geophysical Surveys and Analysis

• Providing critical information through studies, such as resistivity and induced polarity (IP), ground penetrating radar (GPR), very low frequency (VLF), and more. This information can be used for feasibility studies, property reporting, strategy optimization, and mapping.

Mineral Exploration

• Exploration services for prospective or existing mines, providing preliminary exploration for claim staking, mapping, or other early mining needs
• Helping existing operations to develop informed decisions and strategies for expanding production.

Project Evaluation and Feasibility Analysis

• S3 offers the service of mine project evaluation and feasibility study (based on the Australian JORC Code and the Canadian National Instrument 43-101). The use of adequate project evaluation techniques is extremely important, because the mining projects are enormously capital intensive, requires many years of production before a positive cash-flow commences, and added to that their life is much longer compared to other industries. The major challenge for a valuation technique is the ability to consider the project risk, effect of time, and management of flexibility in the valuation.
• The risk of a project comes from the uncertainties embedded in the industry. These uncertainties can be internal and external.
• Internal sources relate to the ore body model and in-situ grade distributions, technical mining specifications such as ground condition, equipment capacities, workforce and management.
• The external uncertainties relate to commodity price, political/country risk, environmental conditions, legislation and government policy.
• Different evaluation methods could be applied, including the discounted cash flow, internal rate of return, payback period, among others.
• A feasibility study describes the last and most detailed step in the engineering process for evaluating a mining project, which usually leads to “go or no-go” decision and financing plan. Based on the level of analysis, feasibility study has higher level of accuracy than the preliminary feasibility study.

Environmental and Social Responsibility

• With the issue of Environmental Social Responsibility policy being an instrumental performance strategy index that is linked to the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs), S3 offers a suite of services to help mining companies add to their sustainability. The includes:
• Conducting ESIA studies, as particularly needed for new prospects.
• Developing Environmental Management Systems, to help the focus on implementation of efficient and sustainable strategies.
• Conduct environmental audit.
• Similarly Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) performance is a prominent KPI measure for companies. S3 has the expertise to help mining companies develop OHS Management Systems, to identify, assess, control workplace risks, a preserve the safety and health of workers, as well as comply with the standards, rules and regulations.

Technical Due Diligence and Project Review

• Provide third party technical due diligence reviews of the geological, mining, metallurgical, and environmental parameters of the mine/prospect asset. This service could be for the purpose of investment, merger, or acquisition purposes. This service will define the relevant technical risks of the asset and provide realistic basis for a range of valuations.

Mine Engineering and Operational Support

• Help saving costs and reducing risks during the design and engineering process of a mine, and providing higher level of strategy that can increase mine performance.
• Offering expertise to help optimize mine’s performance and value, including adjustments to processes, resource optimization, opportunity analysis, trade-off studies, risk analysis and mitigation, and more.
• Assessment to identify/characterize the major hazards, such as fire, explosion, air-blast, outbursts, spontaneous combustion, roof and slope instability, chemical and hazardous substances, etc., and others that may cause harm/injury to miners/assets. Evaluate the engineering, management, and work process factors that impact how a mine mitigates its highest risk. Suggest mitigation measures.

Mineral Processing and Metallurgy

• Provide the appropriate consulting service, with respect to suitable beneficiation and extraction method, including the whole process from sampling preparatory work, laboratory analysis, development of the flowchart of unit operation, to the selection of equipment and installation. This includes physical methods, hydrometallurgical, smelting and pyrometallurgical, material balance, and operational quality control.

Mine Waste Management

• Identify the type of waste and suitable method of management. This could be by applying the methods of reduce, reuse, and recycle. However, the most prominent method of mine waste management is through tailing dams. As these tailings are very hazardous both for the human beings and too for the environment so a proper disposal method of the tailings is to be done, applying proper construction and frequent monitoring of dam safety.
The generated mine waste depends on different factors, including the type ore minerals, mining method (open pit or underground), beneficiation process, and the chemicals used.
Depending on the mining method and type minerals, waste can be mine water, overburden, development waste rock. Other waste includes spent ore, spent process solutions, spent leach solution, slag (in case of iron, copper, lead/zink), mud, cathode waste, and gas emissions in case of smelting. In some cases, the mine uses certain chemicals such as cyanide in the processing stage.

Tunnel Stability and Structural Support

• Applying geological structural analysis, geotechnical methods of rock quality characterization, and rock mechanics, to analyze stability of the rocks at the tunnel. Address the need for wall support, such as meshing and shotcrete, grouting, and bolting techniques.

Mine Closure Planning

• We offer to help mining companies to plan for mine closure early in the life of the mine and achieve various objectives, such as to allow a productive and sustainable after-use of the site, which is acceptable to the mine owner and the regulatory authority, protect public health and safety, alleviate or eliminate environmental damage and thus encourage environmental sustainability, and minimize adverse socio-economic impacts. This builds trust in the mining sector and give the government and local communities the confidence to know a mining project will be closed responsibly at the end of its operating life. Also it will enable companies to avoid environmental and social liabilities through early planning tailored to address specific requirements.