Having built a strong reputation in the geotechnical engineering space for more than 50 years, SRK Consulting South Africa (SA) has established its own specialised in-house geotechnical laboratory at its Johannesburg practise– becoming one of only a few international consulting firms with such a facility.

The dedicated laboratory began operating in February 2025 to streamline and verify testing – especially in the demanding field of tailings management. There is also a strong applied research and skills development aspect to the new laboratory, according to John Stiff, partner, engineering geologist and department lead at SRK Consulting SA.

Stiff noted that extensive laboratory work has been required to drive mining companies’ alignment to the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM), and this has put added pressure on the capacity of laboratories world-wide.

“Our in-house geotechnical testing facility, which is purely for our own internal purposes, brings many benefits for us and for our clients,” he explained.

“For a start, it improves the services that we deliver, by allowing us to speed up testing where necessary and to add a layer of quality assurance to results that we request from commercial laboratories.”

Driving skills and innovation

The facility will also make a vital contribution to the innovation efforts and depth of skills within the company, he emphasised.

The specialised SRK professionals managing the in-house geotechnical laboratory will make their colleagues more familiar with the testwork they specify, allowing them to fine-tune their instructions and gain more valuable results from the commercial tests requested. He noted that SRK Consulting had always been a leader in the geotechnical consulting field, and in particular in its application to tailings facilities.

“We are pushing the boundaries of science and engineering in the design and management of tailings storage facilities (TSFs), and need specialist expertise, infrastructure and flexibility to try new approaches,” he said.

“Not only does the new laboratory give us tools to do this, but it also attracts the kind of people we need to advance the geotechnical discipline as it relates to TSFs.”

The laboratory also makes SRK Consulting a more attractive career destination to those researchers and practitioners who want to explore new ideas, he said.

Enquiring minds

“We are always looking for scientists and engineers with enquiring minds, and tailings is an area of our work where such an approach is more vital than ever,” said Stiff.

“To attract these kinds of individuals, we need specialised facilities for them to conduct their own research and testwork – aimed at understanding tailings facilities better and reducing the risks.”

Aligning TSFs to the stringent requirements of the GISTM over recent years has already led SRK Consulting to partner with Steyn-Wilson Laboratories – providing them with the resources to better serve SRK’s particular needs. The establishment of the in-house geotechnical laboratory is another step in the same journey, he said, which will further raise the company’s game and provide a platform for skills growth and pathbreaking solutions.

Innovation part of SRK’s DNA

“Research, development and innovation has always been part of our DNA at SRK Consulting,” he said. “We don’t necessarily wait for research results to come to us from academic institutions; we are involved in projects that need solutions, and we conduct as much research as possible to address those challenges in scientifically imaginative ways.”

In the TSF space, this innovation extends to many other areas of technological exploration, such as leveraging high-tech monitoring equipment and digital communication technologies to track the performance of tailings dams in near-real-time.

“Our approach to geotechnical innovation can’t always be accommodated by commercial laboratories – who have pressing demands on the volume and timing of their testwork,” he said.

“Having our own dedicated facilities and technicians frees up our engineers, scientists and researchers to pursue lines of enquiry that may be time-consuming and difficult to coordinate with a third party.”

Standing out

The laboratory is managed by SRK Consulting’s highly experienced principal geotechnical engineer Tinus Grobler, who reiterated the value of this resource to the company – perhaps the only one among its peers with its own specialised geotechnical facility.

“It offers considerable support to our colleagues, especially those conducting pioneering research in understanding and mitigating tailings risk,” said Grobler.

Gregory Mc Donald, geotechnical engineer at SRK Consulting, pointed to how the laboratory will support the company and its clients in responding to Principle 5 of the GISTM – which highlights the need to develop and refine alternatives and technologies in the design of TSFs.

Speed and accuracy

“It gives us a tool for validation testing and answering important questions we have about TSF material in a specific project, providing us with prompt and accurate data to move projects along expeditiously,” said McDonald.

The work of the laboratory also added importantly to the quality assurance and quality control (QAQC) of the geotechnical testing and data generation process, said Sthembiso Hadebe, geotechnical engineer at SRK Consulting.

“Investing in this equipment, and the specialised skills to use it, really highlights SRK’s commitment to quality in the process of geotechnical investigation and testing, so we can deliver the best results,” said Hadebe.

The work of the laboratory is currently focused on TSF studies and research being conducted by the geotechnical and engineering geology teams, but in future is likely to also hold considerable value for other disciplines in the group such as mining and geophysics, concluded Hadebe.