SRK Marks 35Th Anniversary By Opening 4 Offices

Mining experts SRK Consulting are celebrating 35 years in the business by adding four new offices worldwide.

The string of openings is aimed at growing pre-existing business in China, capitalizing on the new opportunities that come with the company’s recent merger with VS Consultores in Buenos Aires, and establishing offices in Indonesia and Sweden.

“Expansion in these resource-rich countries, with a focus mainly on the mining industry, probably represents our major growth opportunities in the next few decades,” said SRK group chairman Neal Rigby in a statement.

The mining industry accounts for close to 75% of SRK’s revenue.

Begun as a grassroots effort between three entrepreneurial consultants in Johannesburg in 1975, SRK Consulting has expanded to 900 staff, in 37 offices across six continents.

The recently opened office in Skelleftea, Sweden, targets the Nordic country’s spike in mining activity over the last 10 years due to changes in mining laws and the lifting of restrictions on foreign investment.

With the establishment of the office, SRK will be the first international mining consultancy to open a permanent office in the country, which is the largest producer of metals in the European Union.

SRK’s second office in China, a sister operation to the company’s pre-existing office in Beijing, will be located in Nanchang, Jiangxi province.

“Jiangxi is a major mining province and has one of the three best mining design institutes (Nanchang Engineering & Research Institute of Nonferrous Metals) in China,” said Yonglian Sun, managing director of SRK Consulting China, in a statement. “Our intention is to develop close co-operation with the Chinese design institutes for projects that need to be signed off on by the qualified Chinese institutes.”

With high hopes to expand its capabilities in South America, SRK acquired consultancy firm VS Consultores in May. SRK has been working with the firm for seven years through SRK’s Chile office.

As for Indonesia, the group’s expansion there coincides with the Indonesian government’s recent declaration of a new mining law and a newly elected president.

The office, based in Jakarta, will be better able to service the company’s projects in the region.