Author Archives: Paul Turner

BGS International (BGSI) is the licenced trading name of IGS (International Geoscience Services) Ltd, used since the formation of the company as a spin out from the British Geological Survey. Under the terms of this licensing agreement, the company’s name was agreed to revert to the official company name of IGS Ltd after an initial period of successful trading.

We are therefore pleased to announce that from 1st February 2015 BGSI will now be known as IGS (International Geoscience Services) Ltd.

IGS will undertake exactly the same work as before and will continue to work with governments, development agencies and the World Bank to improve geological understanding and knowledge in support of the mineral exploration sector.

Dr Peter Zawada, Managing Director of IGS, said “I am pleased to announce the new name of IGS Ltd which will continue the work of BGS International, and we look forward to undertaking a significant phase of expansion in our business in the near future”.

BGSI is pleased to announce the appointment of Kathy Kavanagh who joins us as a Senior Minerals Geologist. Kathy has extensive overseas experience including work in Suriname, DR Congo, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon and South Africa. Kathy joins us to work primarily on our DFID-funded Afghanistan project, but will also be assisting us on other projects, as well as helping to develop new proposals.

Peter Zawada, Managing Director of BGSI, said “I am pleased to welcome Kathy to the BGSI team and I am confident that that she will be able to work effectively in Kabul to help deliver our project to support the Afghan people.”

Kathy said “It is a great honour to be joining the highly experienced team at BGSI and I am very much looking forward to contributing to their future projects around the world, especially in Afghanistan”

BGSI recently returned from a visit to Tanzania where it supported the compilation of 18 1:100,000 scale geological maps of the country as part of its World Bank-funded SMMRP (Sustainable Management of Mineral Resource Project) through the Geological Survey of Tanzania.

BGSI are leading an international consortium for this work which includes the Council for Geoscience (South Africa), the University of Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania), the University of Bergen (Norway), and Mintek (South Africa).

BGSI is involved in high-level discussions with the Ministry for Investment and Development (MID) in Kazakhstan and visited Astana recently as part of a UKTI trade mission. At the conclusion of this meeting, several memorandums were signed by the Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Lord Livingston, and Asset Issekeshev, the Minister for Investment and Development (both pictured here). These memorandums are designed to strengthen greater business ties between the UK and Kazakhstan in several fields, including mining. BGSI is in discussions with key organisations in Kazakhstan about helping to develop the mineral industry in the country and encourage greater foreign investment.

BGSI were one of three judges involved in a recent environmental science competition at the NEC in Birmingham. The event, part of a series of events held by the UK branch of World Skills, aims to encourage interest from students in various occupations and give an experience of what might be expected from them from future employers.

The environmental science competition saw six teams from across the UK seek to address the future energy needs of a fictitious island over the next few decades. Teams worked hard to try to balance the need to maintain an adequate power supply to the population with environmental and socio-political issues. Each team’s recommendations were then submitted as a written report before presentations were made to the judging panel who quizzed them on their ideas.

This is the second year BGSI have been involved as judging the competition and we are pleased to be associated with events such as these which seek to encourage enquiring younger scientific minds.

Staff from BGSI recently returned from a short visit to Kabul which marked the start of our DFID-funded Afghan project designed to help the Afghan Geological Survey (AGS) and the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP). This visit was used to determine the current status of the AGS and MoMP and also, in discussion with both organisations, agree the strategy for the project over the next 3 years. The work plan for this project is currently being written and will be submitted to DFID for approval shortly. Once accepted, the implementation of the work will begin early in 2015.

BGSI is pleased to announce the securing of a major 3 year project in Afghanistan. The project, funded by the UK’s DFID (Department for International Development), will help improve the capabilities and resources of the Afghan Geological Survey (AGS) and the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum by providing equipment and training for AGS staff as well as promotional activities to advertise Afghanistan’s mineral resources to the wider world.

Dr Peter Zawada, Managing Director of BGSI said “We are thrilled to be awarded this contract from DFID which represents a significant investment by the UK government in Afghanistan. BGSI looks forward to starting this work soon and to help the Afghan nation realise the economic and social benefits of their mineral resources through managed sustainable development”.

BGSI is to commence work on a new project in Zambia titled ‘Institutional Strengthening of the Geological Survey Department of Zambia in support of mineral exploration and environmental sectors’. This project, which is funded by DFID and managed by the Council for Geoscience (CGS) in South Africa, will be led from the BGSI side by Dr. Frik Hartzer who joined BGSI at the beginning of September. Frik will initially travel to Zambia with other CGS personnel to understand the requirements of the Geological Survey before undertaking the capability strengthening work itself at a later date.

Dr. Frik Harzer joins us as a Senior Project Manager and will be working on some of our new projects in Africa. Frik has over 35 years of experience in all aspects of geological mapping in Africa, specialising in the execution and supervision of international geological programmes. He previously worked at the Council for Geoscience in South Africa, and has also worked as an independent consultant to the minerals and mining community.

On his appointment to BGSI Frik said “I am very excited about the opportunity to work for a dynamic company such as BGSI on its various endeavours worldwide”.

BGS International has recently recruited Alex Fuentes to work with us in developing a geodata information management system. Alex graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Geology from the University of Leicester in 2013 and started with BGSI in May 2014. Alex has been using a variety of software packages to help manipulate and manage different datasets and has been an important part of the team in helping collate geodata and understand its limitations.

Alex said “Working with a company like BGSI is a great experience for me, allowing me to strengthen old skills and develop new ones. The challenge of being part of pioneering new projects is both rewarding and exciting.”