UK environmental firm acquires Australian minerals specialists

Paul Boughton
UK-based environmental firm, SLR Consulting, has acquired GSS Environmental (GSSE), an Australian provider of consultancy services to clients in the mining, minerals, land development and natural resources sectors.

GSSE is a top three Australian consultancy with 50 employees across its offices in Newcastle, New South Wales, and Mackay, Queensland. It advises on around 60 per cent of Australia’s mines and counts BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata among its clients.

It is SLR’s first acquisition since securing £50m in additional financing earlier this year to drive further acquisitions. Previous acquisitions have included Metago, a firm providing environmental consultancy services to the mining industry in sub-Saharan Africa and Western Australia, as well as Australian environmental consultancy Heggies (Pty) and Alaskan firm Hoefler Consulting Group, among others.

David Richards, Chief Executive of SLR, said: “This new acquisition is in line with our continued strategy to augment organic growth by the selective acquisition of high quality consulting firms in growth regions and market sectors and we are delighted to welcome the high-calibre GSSE team to SLR.

“This move helps to expand SLR’s international environmental consultancy footprint and our combined operations in Australia now includes 225 employees providing specialist environmental services to the energy, mining, industrial, waste management, infrastructure and planning and development sectors.”

GSSE was founded in 2003 and has grown rapidly into a multi-skilled dynamic team of environmental professionals with significant experience in both industry and government. It provides a wide range of environmental services taking projects from the planning stages of development through to operational stages and decommissioning.

For more information, visit www.slrconsulting.com

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