Presentation done by Mr. David Javis from GWP Consultants at the public consultation for the SEIA for the establishment of mining zones in Trinidad and Tobago

1. PROVISION OF CONSULTING SERVICES
OF ISLAND WIDE STRATEGIC
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (SEIA)
FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MINING
ZONES IN TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Monday 9 December 2013
David Jarvis

2. PROJECT OVERVIEW:
• Objectives:
–Recommend Mining Zones for all
surface-won minerals to be
established to comply with Minerals
Act 2000
–Identify 25 years’ supply of
construction materials for the nation

3. PROJECT OVERVIEW:
Work elements
• LiDAR survey of key areas where minerals are quarried
• Supply (resources and current production) study and
demand forecasts
• Creation of GIS bringing together spatial data from a
range of Government sources
• SEIA to establish areas of deposit without primary
environmental and social constraints
• Use of SEIA results to establish MZs
• Formal and informal training of counterparts

4. PROJECT OVERVIEW:
Outcomes
• Recommended Mining Zones providing 25 years’
supply of principal construction materials
• A GIS for MEEA as a resource they can use and
develop in the future in their role as regulator and
for managed minerals supply
• Some high quality imagery and 3D survey
information that can be made available to
operators applying for licences and CECs and used
as a basis for monitoring and inventory

5. PROJECT OVERVIEW:
Outcomes
• A more robust database of quarries and pits in
Trinidad and Tobago
• Institutional strengthening and facilitation of
cooperation between Ministries and Agencies who
have a stake in minerals planning and regulation
• An emerging framework for better regulation of
the industry in the future and planning for future
needs

6. What is a Mining Zone?
• As defined in the Act
– Outside a Mining Zone: mining/quarrying is not
allowed under any circumstances
– Inside the MZ: mining/quarrying is allowed,
subject to compliance with strict rules
imposed and enforced through Licences
and CECs

7. What is a Mining Zone?
• Some MZs created simply to allow managed
closure and rehabilitation
• Standalone processing plants included in
MZs to ensure that this activity is properly
regulated (especially in relation to
discharges to water)

8. What is a Mining Zone?
• A spatial planning unit – but not a
permanent one. Once resources are
depleted and rehabilitation is complete, a
Mining Zone has no further relevance and
will cease to exist – the ‘new land’ can be
used for something else (after-use)
• New MZs will be needed in future

9. What is a Mining Zone?
• Functions of Mining Zones include:
–Providing clarity for mineral operators and the
public as to where mineral working will be
allowed, and where it will not
–Providing rules to underpin planning and
regulation of activity within MZs
–Maintaining a ‘land bank’ of construction
materials to meet the needs of Trinidad and
Tobago for a defined time horizon (25 years)

10. The supply and demand
study
• Supply (current production and capacity):
– Current production not systematically recorded.
Estimates made from available royalty information,
industry sources (supplied confidentially)
supplemented by using indirect information
(explosives use, cement production) to ‘reality
check’
– Validation of current production by extrapolating
from 2006 and 2007 published figures for the sector
using construction GDP

11. The supply and demand
study
• Future demand:
– Extrapolation on a ‘straight line’ basis assuming 2%
growth on average over the 25 years to give total
demand (data insufficient to be more sophisticated or
predict trends)
• Establishing MZ areas to meet future demand
for 25 years
– Available resources per km² estimated for each material type
using best available geological information with generous
contingencies for uncertainty
• Future demand/resource per km² = total MZ
area needed

12. What is a Mining Zone?
• Functions of Mining Zones include:
–
Integration of mineral planning with other
aspects of spatial planning in Trinidad and
Tobago in the context of NSDS, particularly:
•
•
•
Safeguarding areas underlain by valuable
deposits to prevent other development that
might sterilize the mineral before it can be
recovered
Long term planning for ‘after minerals’
Preventing conflict between quarries and other
land-uses

13. What is a Mining Zone?
• Special functions of the initial Mining
Zones include:
– Legalising all current quarrying (and primary
processing) activity by bringing it inside an MZ
– Safeguarding the deposit area of Tar Sand for
future potential exploitation
– Designating areas of current mineral activity
where the only ongoing extraction that will be
permitted will be in the context of a
rehabilitation plan

14. What is the SEIA Process?
•
•
•
•
Collect baseline data
Collate these data into a GIS database
Give appropriate weightings
Search the GIS database for the desired
demand volumes (expressed as
tonnes/km²)
• Refine the outcomes

15. 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Locations of licensed quarries
Quarry permissions
CECs for licensed quarries
End of Year surveys for
quarries
Production statistics
Locations
of
unlicensed
quarries
Geology
Seismic risk
Watercourses/bodies
Aquifers
Water catchments
Built areas
Built development (sensitive)
Proposed development
Local, regional and national
plans
Roads/Rights of Way
Rail
Ecology
Agriculture
Soils
Baseline data
• 40 subject matters:
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
Electricity
Telephones
Sewerage
Water supply
Natural oil/gas
Military
Transmitters/aerials
Airports/protected zones
Ports/import related
infrastructure
Tourism areas
Archaeological/cultural
Forestry
National parks
Topography
Flood/soil erosion
Slope stability
Earthquake
Subsidence
Hurricane/storms
Tsunami

16. CANIRI
Civil Aviation Authority
Commissioner of Police
Commissioner of State Lands
Coosals
CSO
EMBDC
First Citizen Bank
Forestry Division
Lands and Surveys Division
MEEA
Meteorological Office
Ministry of Arts and Multiculturism
Ministry of Environment and Water
Resources
Ministry of Finance
Ministry of Housing and Environment
Ministry of Local Government
Baseline data
Ministry of National Security
Ministry of Tourism
Ministry of Works and Infrastructure
National Stone Quarries
National Gas Company
National Energy Corporation
OPDM
Petrotrin
PLIPDECO
Powergen
T and TEC
TCPD
TEMA
THA including Division of Agriculture, Marine
Affairs, Marketing and the Environment
Trinidad Cement Company Ltd
TSTT
WASA
Water Resources Agency
• Existing data sources:

17. Baseline data
• The process begins with the geology

18. Where are the proposed
MZs?
Based on
geological
occurrence
Geological formations
in which quarrying
currently takes place
in Trinidad

20. Baseline data
• Existing quarrying activity and the LiDAR survey areas

21. Baseline data
• The geology, principal quarrying activity and LiDAR
survey area for Tobago

22. Searching the GIS database
• Sieve Mapping:
“The overlay of all of the levels of collected
baseline data together with any stand-offs,
buffers and exclusions to identify
unconstrained (or minimally constrained)
areas of relevant geology to fulfil the
projected 25 year demand requirements”

23. What are the on-the-ground
boundaries?
• Roads
• Rivers
• Built Development
• Straight lines across open ground
(e.g. Tar Sands)

24. Control in Mining Zones
• Parameters
• Thresholds
• Requirements
Why are they needed?

25. Mining Zones
• MZs only define where quarrying
may take place
• Not where, in detail, it should
happen

26. PTRs
• Indicate distances from sensitive
receptors
• Schedule assessments that must be
done before CECs can be issued and
licences applied for
• Indicate basic operator and application
process requirements

27. PTRs
• Schedule of PTRs in 16 sections:
LEGAL
HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT
SITE
LANDSCAPE AND VISUAL
SOILS
NOISE
WATER ENVIRONMENT
AIR QUALITY
BUILT DEVELOPMENT
VIBRATIONS
INFRASTRUCTURE
HEALTH AND SAFETY
ROADS AND TRANSPORT FORESTRY
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT OTHER ITEMS

28. Annual review of MZs
• Performance against strategic masterplan
• Performance against PTRs and individual
Licence and CEC Obligations
• Total tonnage produced in the
year/reconciliation against royalty payments
• Area of new land disturbed
• Area of land rehabilitated

29. 5 year review of MZs
• Additional/replacement Mining Zones will be
needed as the initial 25 year supply is
depleted
• Areas of search will need to be determined
for this purpose
• GORTT will need to consider how these can
be safeguarded from other development,
which might sterilize mineral deposits.

30. Periodic review of MZs
• It may sometimes be necessary for new
Mining Zones to be designated on an
opportunistic basis when major
development is planned which would
sterilize valuable potential reserves which
could be removed before or during the
construction phase.

31. Development of:
• Guidance
• Codes of Practice
• Functional trade and professional bodies encouraging
good practice and raising industry standards
• Improved standards of environmental and safety
performance – higher aspirations
• Improved professional and technical skills in
government to allow better monitoring of compliance
and more consistent enforcement

32. Some headline figures
• Total area covered by Mining Zones - Trinidad:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Sand and Gravel (3 MZs)
96.85 km²
Blue Limestone and sandstone (12 MZs)
10.58 km²
Plastering sands (9 MZs)
27.36 km²
Clay (2 MZs)
3.47 km²
Yellow Limestone (2 MZs)
3.52 km²
Porcellanite (6 MZs)
1.70 km²
Tar Sand (1 MZ)
39.44 km²
Trinidad Total
182.92 km²
(approximately 3.8% of total land area of Trinidad
or 2.97% excluding Tar Sand)

33. Some headline figures
• Total area covered by Mining Zones - Tobago:
– Tobago Total (andesite) (1 MZ)
1.88 km²
– (approximately 0.96% of total land area of Tobago)
• Trinidad and Tobago combined:
– All materials (36 MZs)
185.80 km²
(approximately 3.62% of total land area of T&T)
– All materials excluding Tar Sands (35 MZs) 146.36 km²
(approximately 2.80% of total land area of T&T)
• A further 2 MZs to capture 7No. standalone
processing plants that exist outside MZs within which
extraction takes place.