Aquaterra was formed in 1998 by a group of eight hydrogeologists and engineers working closely with the mining sector.

As reputation grew, the company acquired more clients including contracts to provide advice for mining projects in Africa and Asia, and for oil and gas projects in the Middle East.  By 2002, Aquaterra had around 20 staff and opened another office in Adelaide. In 2005, a UK office (Lewes) was opened to target the UK Water Industry. A Sydney office was established in 2008, followed by a permanent office in Mongolia (in support of projects on-going since 2002). Another two offices were established in 2009: Echuca (Victoria), to increase work in catchment management in the Murray Darling Basin and in Dublin to pursue European and West African mining opportunities.

Aquaterra now has around 90 staff working in seven offices in Australia, the UK, Ireland and Asia, and is currently working for clients in more than fifteen different countries in three main sectors: Mining, Catchment Management and Water Utilities.

It provides consultancy services specifically in groundwater resources assessment and development, dewatering, surface water modelling, water resource planning, ground source heating and cooling, borehole asset management, water demand forecasting and management, optimising water expenditure and pumping and environmental management.  Aquaterra has extensive experience in working on environmental, feasibility and operations of mining projects.  In the water industry, Aquaterra has significant experience in developing drought and water resource management plans, modelling climate change impacts and providing expert advice at public inquiries and hearings and asset maintenance planning.  Catchment management experience includes basin-wide sustainable yield assessments and the integration of technical studies to support policy development and project facilitation.  Some of Aquaterra’s recent significant projects include:

• Groundwater modelling for the Environment Agency across its southern and south-western regions
• Feasibility studies to assess dewatering and water supply options and associated environmental impacts for impacts of a gold-mining project in Côte d’Ivoire, Africa and Uranium project in Salamanca, Spain.
• Ground source heating and cooling consultancy services for the Railway Land Wildlife Trust’s innovative social & ecological sustainability centre in Lewes, UK: the Link Later Pavilion.
• Mine dewatering studies and the design of borefields to supply up to 900L/s of water for the Oyu Tolgoi Copper Gold Mine in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, for Rio Tinto/Ivanhoe Mining
• NVIRP – a project to rationalise irrigation in Northern-Victoria, returning water to the environment and restructure obsolete infrastructure.
• Mine dewatering, water supply and excess water re-injection studies related to both environmental and bankable feasibility studies for Brockman Resources’ Maraillana Iron Project in Western Australia.

Current international mining clients include: BHPBilliton, Rio Tinto, Paladin Resources, Lihir Goldmines and Ivanhoe Mining.  In the water sector, clients include:  South East Waster, Southern Water and Thames Water in the UK, and Goulburn Murray Water in Australia; while in the natural resources management sector, clients include the Environment Agency, the Australian Federal Government, the Murray Darling Basin Authority and a range of state water management agencies

Duncan Storey (Managing Director RPS Aquaterra) commented “We are excited to be part of the RPS Group; it is an opportunity to continue to grow our business with the support, resources and wider geographical footprint that RPS offers.  There are some strong synergies between our water resource skills, our exposure to the international mining sector and capabilities within RPS.”

The acquisition builds on RPS’ successfully expanding water services experience, and presents new opportunities to work further with resources and water clients beyond European terrain. Welcoming Aquaterra to the RPS Group allows us to further broaden the Group’s skills base in a highly important field which is attracting more focus as climate change and energy resource issues hold a clear prominence for the global future.

Contact:
(Australia) Duncan Storey
T: +61 (0) 8 9368 4044
E: Duncan.storey@aquaterra.com.au

(UK) Andrew Ball
T: +44 (0) 1273 858223
E: Andrew.ball@aquaterra.uk.com

(Australia - Mining) Jon Hall
T: +61 (0) 8 9368 4044
E: jon.hall@aquaterra.com.au

(Australia – Natural Resource Management) Karl Mathers
T: +61 (0) 3 5481 0300
E: karl.mathers@aquaterra.com.au