Gerry Wait, then a director of Nexus Heritage, was commissioned in 2011 to undertake the cultural heritage components of environmental and social impact assessments in advance of potash mining and transport/infrastructure the western province of the Republic of Congo.
Gerry worked with Professor I. Thiaw of the Institut Fondamental de Afrique Noir in Senegal. The mining concession is located north of Pointe Noire, near the western, Atlantic, coastline and consists of a mine-head, road/rail corridors, a coastal processing facility and jetty, plus administrative and housing complexes.
The heritage assessment includes Tangible Heritage (archaeology within a 72 square kilometre impact zone) as well as Intangible Heritage (churches and religious institutions, the Terrien land stewardship institutions, music, dance, crafts, mythology etc.) by means of field survey and consultation with public bodies, local village groups and key individuals.
The project culminated in 2018 with the publication of Archaeology and Ethnography along the Loango Coast in the South West of the Republic of Congo, Wait and Thiaw