Company Announcement - Integrated Pump Rental has proactively addressed the need for easier removal of silt and built-up sediments from process water ponds, return water ponds and other water storage areas. The introduction of the SlurrySucker Dredge Units into the company’s short- and long-term hire fleet will assist mines in on-going maintenance. “Severely silted up ponds and reservoirs can impact on the water storage capabilities of a mine or plant, negatively affecting downstream processes. Designed and engineered locally by Integrated Pump Rental, the SlurrySucker Dredge Unit is capable of extracting high tonnages due to the design and engineering of the dredge head,” says Lee Vine, general manager at Integrated Pump Rental.

This innovative dredge unit is suitable for dredging and cleaning water capture areas where silt or slimes is an issue or where water retention and water holding capacity is being threatened. With this dredge unit regular cleaning of process water ponds, return water dams or other water storage areas is made simpler and faster.

During the developmental stages, Integrated Pump Technology made use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to optimise and validate the design. This provides customers with the assurance that the performance of the SlurrySucker and its engineering integrity are maximised. Vine points out that two standard units are available. The smaller or SlurrySucker Mini is capable of extracting 120 m3 per hour of slurry/water mixture, equating to 30 to 40 dry tons per hour. Double this extraction volume can be achieved with the SlurrySucker Maxi, which will remove between 70 to 80 dry tons per hour. The SlurrySucker Mini has a 100 mm discharge and the SlurrySucker Maxi has a 150 mm discharge. Manufactured using locally produced components, the SlurrySucker Dredge units incorporate pumps from the respected Grindex slurry and dewatering range. This means that lead times are significantly reduced both in terms of complete units as well as the requisite parts, since the need to import components has been eliminated. Selection of the pump will be determined by the dredging operation at hand and could include either Grindex dewatering pumps where agitation of the slurry is required, or Grindex slurry pumps where there is a need to remove slurry from ponds or dams.

“The biggest advantage of this new dredging unit is that the pumps can be changed to accommodate specific customer applications. An example of this would be where the customer needs to remove 160 dry tons per hour. In this instance, the dredging unit would be custom engineered to handle the required flow,” says Vine. “The SlurrySucker Dredge Unit can be used on plastic lined dams without any damage to liners. This is very important from an environmental perspective as there is no risk of the liner being cut and water leaking out,” Vine adds. Galvanised steel is used for the construction of the dredging unit framework and for use in highly corrosive applications it can be fabricated from stainless steel. Engineered as a robust, compact dredging unit, the SlurrySucker Dredge Unit can be easily transported on a standard road trailer, making it simple to move from pond to pond on a mine site.

The dredging units can be easily operated by one person and for those instances where plants do not have the necessary manpower available, Integrated Pump Rental can undertake the pond or dam cleaning on a turnkey contract basis. A major advantage of this unit is that the dredging operation can be performed without any downstream processes having to be halted. When other traditional methodologies are used to dredge water storage ponds then the dam or pond needs to be taken off line and this shutdown can be costly in terms of production.

“Integrated Pump Rental aims to make pumping solutions available to industry that will provide maximised uptime and ease of use for our customer base. The introduction of the SlurrySucker Dredge Unit is a classic example of how we have worked together with Integrated Pump Technology to alleviate a pressing industry need,” Vine concludes.