South Africa-based investment holding company Valhalla Capital Partners has signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with Finnish wastewater treatment technology pioneer EPSE.

The JV, which also includes Johannesburg-based water treatment company Prosep and Texas-based mining consultancy Titan Resources, will start operations on October 1 to disseminate EPSE’s innovative water treatment technology across Africa.

EPSE's technology will be used with local partners involved in water treatment solutions on the African continent to remove metals from water, creating recyclable water and environment-friendly precipitate.

The method can be applied to all wastewater containing dissolved metals, which are typical by-products of the continent’s robust mining and diverse industrial sectors.

Valhalla Capital Partners will raise financing for the expansion of the JV in South Africa and across the continent.

The activities of the JV will consist of projects where samples from individual mines will be processed by the EPSE method, and solutions will be implemented locally in partnership with Prosep.

“This is an exciting venture to bring a leading European company that has a global footprint into Africa’s water treatment functions. There are a number of opportunities that have been identified in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as the rest of the continent, which we look forward to developing in the name of a greener water footprint on the continent. These will include partnering with a range of existing agencies and institutions,” said Valhalla Capital Partners CEO Lesibana Fosu.

Prosep CEO Steve Evans pointed out that clean water and the responsible use of water resources were important to countries across the African continent and the agreement would enable progress towards water and metals recycling locally.

Africa has a large mining and industrial sector struggling to cope with scarce resources and a large population.

EPSE will enable water recycling and provide the industry with the opportunity to operate sustainably in terms of wastewater management and recycling.

“The market has already been mapped and half a dozen potential mines have been identified; a set of samples are on the way to EPSE’s laboratory in Finland, while other arrangements for the JV operations are underway.

“In the long term, activities will be local and EPSE's aim is to train local people. EPSE wants to transfer technological know-how as quickly as possible to ensure that large-scale water use in Africa is successful, and is clean and environmentally sound,” concluded EPSE CEO Jouni Jääskeläinen.