Council for Geoscience

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The Council for Geoscience (CGS) is the national geoscientific authority in South Africa and the successor to the Geological Survey of South Africa formed in 1912 . The headquarters are in the Silverton district of Pretoria .

General

The agency reports to the Department of Mineral Resources of the Republic of South Africa , which is politically represented by the Minister of Mineral Resources . The primary legal basis of this institution is the Geoscience Act ( Act No. 100 of 1993 ), a law that arose in the transition period from apartheid to democratic South Africa. This law was amended in 2010 with the Geoscience Amendment Act ( Act No. 16 of 2010 ).

In addition to the headquarters in Pretoria, there are offices in Polokwane ( Limpopo ), Cape Town ( Western Cape ), Pietermaritzburg and Durban ( KwaZulu-Natal ), Port Elizabeth ( Eastern Cape ) and in Upington ( Northern Cape ).

At the head of the Council for Geoscience is, in addition to the management of the authorities, a committee that is mainly composed of representatives from other national government agencies and a few private legal entities.

tasks

The Council of Geoscience has a mandate to promote research and dissemination of knowledge in the field of geosciences . In addition, the authority is active in the areas of geophysics , seismology , geochemistry , mineralogy , engineering geology , hydrogeology , environmental geology , marine geology and other special tasks. The latter also includes geological mapping of the country and a service for exploratory drilling .

The main work includes the following functional areas:

  • Exploration and provision of information about potential and economically important deposits of mineral raw materials and natural energy resources. This includes the use of geothermal energy sources and other energy resources such as coal , oil , natural gas and shale gas .
  • The authority proceeds in a similar way with its tasks in the areas of environmental protection and water abstraction . The focus here is on reducing or averting environmental hazard potentials. This guarantees state support for the provision of sufficient amounts of water for communities, industry and agriculture as well as the monitoring of the respective water use.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ CGS: About us . on www.geoscience.org.za (English)
  2. ^ Southern African Legal Information Institute: Geoscience Act, 1993 (No. 100 of 1993) - G 14939 . on www.saflii.org (English)
  3. ↑ a b CGS: Our profile . on www.geoscience.org.za (English)
  4. ^ CGS: Board members . on www.geoscience.org.za (English)
  5. ↑ CGS: Services . on www.geoscience.org.za (English)
  6. ^ CGS: Scientific operations . on www.geoscience.org.za (English)

Coordinates: 25 ° 43 ′ 55.8 ″  S , 28 ° 16 ′ 55.5 ″  O