Remote dredging in a gold mine

The walls of a 125-meter-deep gold mine in Oceania are on the verge of collapse due to persistent heavy rains. There is now a substantial layer of water, sand and silt at the bottom of the mine in which equipment has already been lost. Bell Dredging Pumps was contracted to develop a remote-controlled dredge-amphibian crane to dredge the pit of the mine and remove collapsed material so that the mine can remain operational and lost equipment can be brought to the surface.

Bell Dredging Pumps focuses on the development of specialized dredgers, amphibious excavators and small cutter suction dredgers. "For this project in Oceania, we developed a 35-ton amphibious crane with a Bell 250 dredge pump on the arm," explains Thijs van den Outenaar of Bell Dredging Pumps. "Thanks to the amphibious undercarriage, the crane is able to operate both on land and on water. The crane is equipped with a long boom for more reach and the counterweight block has been replaced by a hydraulic powerpack that drives the pump."

Remote control
Due to the continuous threat of collapse and the fact that sinkholes occur regularly, Bell Dredging Pumps implemented full remote control of the amphibious crane. Van den Outenaar: "At a distance of up to 200 meters, the operator can perform all dredging operations and control all functionalities of the crane. Because the material sucked into the well by the crane is discharged 2.5 kilometers away, we also built an additional booster station. To maintain the pressure in the pressure lines, this additional pump is needed. In this case, it is fully electrically driven because of its location in an underground mine pit."

The amphibious crane went on transport from the Netherlands January 30, partially disassembled, and is expected to be up and running in the gold mine by early April. The intention is that the crane will eventually suck up and pump away some 1 million tons of material.