Edenville Energy Plc (LON:EDL) Chief Executive Officer Rufus Short caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the Environmental Impact Assessment, follow-up exploration and corporate social responsibility
Q1: You stated in your news release this week that water-sampling work for the power plant and the environmental impact assessment (EIA) has already begun. Could you elaborate a little bit on how long the processes take and the process involved?
A1: This process of water-sampling is actually going to go on over the entire life of the mine and the power plant. To start with, we need a baseline study to show what is there now and what those water qualities and water types are in the area. So that’s why we’ve done some of this work already for the previous EIA and that’s why we’ve carried on with this work now to run into the second EIA for the power plant. We have to get at least one season over the year so we had our four seasons and the data runs into next year so we need to start this work at least a year before the data gets sent into the government and the EIA process so that’s why we’re starting it now.
Q2: Potential partners are not involved in the EIA work at this stage but at what stage would we expect to see input from a power plant developer become more important to the process?
A2: As the design for the power plant becomes more defined and we have the partner on board and a specific type of power plant, a process is put into place at the design stage then that will have to run into the EIA process as well. At the moment, we don’t need an EPC contractors input for the EIA but we see this happening probably the first half of next year. Perhaps quarter 1 of next year will be some more detailed input from the EPC contractor on what is needed and then we will carry out those required tests on the site.
Q3: Follow-up exploration work has been ongoing for a couple of months now, when do you expect to see or have some summer results for it?
A3: We’ve got data on the first stage of the exploration work we were doing, this is geophysical lines across the western area of the deposits and moving into the north and this has got to be interpreted by a geologist so I don’t want to push our geologist but I think we’ll have something out in the next month as a summary of what the conclusions are from this work.
Q4: Corporate social responsibility was mentioned in the news release, how does the local population feel about mining and development in the area?
A4: I think if it’s done in a responsible way, they are very positive. The regions are largely agricultural areas with townships across the area. They want employment, they want some kind of industry and commercial operations in the area and most importantly, they want electricity, I think it’s supported very much by the local community and the local community leaders. What we’ve got to be very careful about is to build this project in a responsible way to international standards, just like anywhere in the world. So there’ll be a lot of local consultation and involvement from the people in the area and we hope to work together with them to provide a success for both sides.
