Environmental Due Diligence

The sale and change of ownership of commercial enterprises often involves complex transactions and significant investments. Advances in environmental legislation and enforcement, as well as consumer and stakeholder pressure require that businesses ensure that risks associated with the inheritance of legacy environmental risk as well as foreseeable environmental constraints are identified and adequately quantified to prevent unacceptable financial and reputational impact from business acquisitions and strategic decisions. EScience Associates perform environmental due diligences with the objective of ensuring that clients make informed decisions based on full understanding of the environmental risk and quantified liabilities associated with these business decisions.

Due diligence assessment is undertaken to identify environmental risks and their legal and financial implications. The due diligence process serves not only as a risk assessment and management tool but also as a negotiation tool. Identification and assessment of legacy impacts and the implications of current and forcible legislation are used to quantify the action required for rectification of legal infringements, for meeting future compliance requirements and for averting of enforcement and civil action.

EScience Associates has undertaken several due diligences for large commercial transactions including, but not limited to:

• The acquisition of Samancor Chrome; and
• The bidding for Highveld Steel and Vanadium by an aspirant party

Various other large industrial and mining due diligence assessments have been undertaken; however the confidential nature of such processes often requires that they may not be divulged. The technical and environmental competence of the EScience Associates team ensures that a full understanding of the nature of processes and process history is used to good effect in identifying risks and quantifying mitigation needs, including but not limited to:

• Legacy waste disposal assessment, as well assessment of potential for recovery, re-use, or treatment & disposal, or closure requirements;
• Assessment of atmospheric emissions compliance requirements, as well raw material or engineering intervention required for current and future compliance;
• Surface and ground water contamination review, as well quantification of intervention required for remediation and compliance;
• Mine and industrial rehabilitation, remediation and closure planning and costing; and
• Identification of optimum investment planning for the above based on financial modelling in consideration of key economic variables and principles such as, but not limited to inflation, present value of money and weighted cost of capital.