Nonprofit organisation the Land Rehabilitation Society of Southern Africa (LaRSSA) will host its second yearly conference next week.

Under the theme ‘Land Rehabilitation: Successes and Failures’, conference delegates and speakers will share their research and practical implementation experience on rehabilitation techniques that work, that do not work well and that do not work at all, enabling those who are currently developing similar projects to avoid unnecessary costs and troubles.

LaRSSA VP Piet Smit tells Mining Weekly that South Africa currently has some good examples of what can be achieved to leave a sustainable legacy based on good rehabilitation planning and implementation.

He further notes that the trend to rehabilitate mining-impacted land seems to be gaining momentum in South Africa with more companies committing resources toward identifying sustainable post-closure solutions.

“I believe the reason for this trend is South Africa’s legal framework requirements and international investment rules,” says Smit.

Despite this progress, much work is still needed to mitigate and reverse the severity of bad mining practice at many operations.

To address this need, the 245-member-strong LaRRSA can play a key role in facilitating the development of solutions to address the rehab-ilitation needs at these operations by providing a communication channel assist in the review and professional conduct of current and future land rehabilitation projects, says Smit.

“Having said this, we remain committed to investing in academic research to fill various rehabilitation knowledge gaps, with the aim of contributing to the overall rehabilitation knowledge bank in Southern Africa.”

The yearly conference is also an important forum for sharing research and developing knowl- edge, specifically the layman’s practical imple- mentation knowledge related to land rehab-ilitation in Southern Africa, which has until now been limited to ancillary scientific publications in mainstream single-discipline journals, says Smit.

He further says that, while industry-specific bodies have hosted colloquiums and seminars covering their industry-specific needs, they have failed to interact and share knowledge with associated industries.

Creating a Forum

Therefore, the aim of the LaRSSA conference is to create a forum that provides an opportunity for all the associated disciplines involved in creating sustainable rehabilitation solutions to share their knowledge and experience, thereby stimulating thinking on land rehabilitation and ensuring a multidisciplinary approach to the issue is achieved.

The four-day conference, which will be held in Muldersdrift, from September 9 to 12, will encom-pass a technical preconference workshop on rehabilitation norms and standards, facilitated by LaRSSA cofounding member and immediate past president Dr Wayne Truter, and several postconference field trips to areas that require rehabilitation and where rehabilitation is under way.

Field trips will include a tour to several sites disturbed by the gold mining industry on the Witwatersrand and a tour to mines on the plat- inum belt of the western limb of the Bushveld Com- plex, as well as a tour of the geotechnical research facilities at the University of Pretoria.