Mining, logistics and waste management company Upward Spiral 1471 on March 12 showcased its offering for mining and industries, hosting a media engagement to demonstrate its suite of local products and services for reclamation, rehabilitation, restoration and treatment.

Since its inception in 2011, the company has grown from two entrepreneurs to over 150 employees, and has also created jobs for several thousand youth and local businesses, MD Jackie Pahad acclaimed.

In 2021, the company expanded its scope from rehabilitation and cleanup operations, to three divisions – mining, water treatment and logistics.  

The mining division focuses on processing historic mine dumps and tailings.

The water treatment division provides waste management and water treatment solutions through rehabilitation and site remediation, while the company’s waste management facility treats hazardous effluent liquid waste.

Upward Spiral’s Effluent and Water Treatment Facility, located on the East Rand of Gauteng, was a keen focus of the media engagement. This facility endeavours to treat effluent back to environment-friendly water standards.

It is a full turnkey facility that runs on a 24/7 schedule.

Upward Spiral’s “discharged-to-sewer” technology allows the company to recover water from hazardous waste effluent, aligned with the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment's zero liquid discharge to landfill regulations.

The water quality achieved from this recovery is in line with the municipal standards for discharge to sewer. The treated liquid is piped to the City of Ekurhuleni, for free, with the city then treating it further to suitable drinking standards. 

Upward Spiral charges clients to treat their effluents, but does not charge the municipality, as this is not the company’s core business.

Moreover, the company’s in-house, propriety technology is further developed to allow for the recovery of excess metals in the effluent, from base metals to precious metals.

The technology therefore allows the company to beneficiate the by-products from the treatment process, and sell this. This is an additional revenue stream from its main objective of diverting effluent from landfill.

The facility is currently processing at its highest-ever capacity, the company highlighted, at about 6 000 t a month, and boasting a 90% water recovery rate.

Compliance certification includes a hazardous water treatment licence with special authorisation to recover and refine precious metals; and a sewer effluent discharge permit.

The logistics division comprises a fleet of yellow plant, tipper trucks and specialised transport vehicles, to transport material across mining and industrial sites.

This in-house capacity aims to support mining operations, waste movement and large-scale site developments.

CONTENTION

Upward Spiral is currently contending with the consequences of a media article, which posited that the company did not have the required water-use authorisation that was necessary as part of the rehabilitation work it is undertaking at a gold mine, which has not been operational since 2011.

Upward Spiral was appointed to rehabilitate the site a few years back. Completed work includes demolishing and surface clean-up of the old gold plant footprint. The company is also screening for pre-concentration and blending of different grades for viable exploration; structure decommissioning and selective separation; revegetation; footprint clean-up; and monitoring and management.

The company’s work to decommission the tailings storage facility (TSF) to reclaim gold and other minerals poses a potential risk to the adjacent wetlands, thereby necessitating the correct water-use authorisation.

Pahad asserted that the company had applied for requisite authorisation, but that it had not been received.

Upward Spiral has since halted its rehabilitation operations at the site.

Following an environmental compliance inspection by the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources in November last year, an order was issued late last year instructing the company clear the stockpiles of rocks dumped closer to the wetlands.

Moreover, as it removes the rock cladding around the TSF, it must use clean rocks to replace this, thereby maintaining the TSF’s integrity and stability, the order reads.

This work is being undertaken currently, with Upward Spiral having halted all other work until the requisite water-use authorisation has been granted.