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Issues with Under Ground Dewatering ? Sludge and debris in mine water pumped from sumps has been an inherent and costly problem for the underground industry for decades and has only become more of an issue as mines get deeper and become more focused on output. I.e. more activity = more sludge. Some of the most common issues are: Premature Rotor & Stator Burnout This is caused by sand, sludge & debris being channelled into the finely machined parts, grinding them out so the pump can no longer work at capacity or causing a complete blockage causing the pump and motor to suffer complete burnout. Some mines are changing out pumps at 2000 hours or less. This not only carries the obvious expense of pump and motor rebuilds or new equipment it also is responsible for using a large and often unplanned personnel resource for the urgent change out. Conservative figures would suggest a pump change out costs upwards of $50,000. In an effort to mitigate this costly issue some mines opt to have personnel clean and dump tanks multiple times a day. This then creates another cost: Tank Dumping Resource From figures received from various sites it takes approximately 1.5-2 hour round trip for maintenance personnel to leave, clean the tank and return to normal duties. Normally this would be carried out twice a day. 2 x (2 hours x $120 Per Hour) = $480 Per day. Any systems in a “Daisy Chain” to the surface will suffer the same fate – The above figures will need to be multiplied. All sediment that continues to be pumped will end up in one of two areas. A dedicated settlement pond or tailings dam. Which causes another costly issue. Tailings Dams/Settlement Dams filling with sediment. Once a dam becomes full it either needs to be dredged out to gain back capacity or a new facility will need to be built. Depending on the size of these dams a wall raise or new dam can cost upwards of $40M or Dredging usually starts at several $100,000. 1300 954 202 sales@liquimech.com.au 22