SLR acquire Australian minerals specialists

Leading UK-based environmental consultancy acquires one of Australia’s top three consultancies

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

GSSE are a top three Australian consultancy with 50 employees spread across their offices in Newcastle, New South Wales, and Mackay, Queensland. They advise on around 60% of Australia’s mines and count BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata among their clients.

The purchase is SLR’s first since securing £50 million 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.’

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