Providing solutions to tough dewatering applications is what Integrated Pump Rental has built its solid reputation on, and mines as far as Botswana have turned to this dewatering specialist to solve water problems.
Recently, a Sykes diesel engine pump set was used to rapidly dewater a surface mine in an existing copper mine in northern Botswana. Thanks to this high performance pump unit with a high drop height, 103 million liters of water were evacuated in just 30 days to allow exploratory drilling.
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Steve du Toit, Head of Rental Development at Integrated Pump Rental, explains that due to unusually high rainfall for the season, it was no longer possible to reach the banks and the front where the exploratory coring was to be carried out.
“This was when the mine contacted us to ask for prompt assistance to avoid any further delays,” du Toit said. “After evaluating the application requirements and operating conditions, we selected and shipped one of our Sykes XH 150 rental pump sets.”
Sykes XH 150 Rental pump sets are available as trailer or skid mounted units, allowing easy on-site installation, also making it easy to move the unit from one section to another as needed. In this case, a skid mounted unit was used.
An advantage with the Sykes XH150 is that it offers automatic priming, which means that upon arrival at the mine, the unit could quickly be put into operation to dewater the surface mine. This unit has a flow rate of 120 liters per second, which means it can move some 3456 m3 of water in eight hours and, as an added bonus, it is also able to easily handle solids.
Engineered for reliable performance with low fuel consumption, the pump is capable of operating in dewatering applications for long periods of time and its ability to operate in “hum” conditions allows for conditions in which suction levels can fluctuate.
Du Toit explains that in this particular application, renting a Sykes pump set made more sense for the mine, but when continuous dewatering is required in surface and underground mines, customers often prefer to purchase the pump set directly. . “In many of these cases, we are still called upon to enter into service level agreements to ensure that the pump sets are properly maintained, thus ensuring the lowest total cost of ownership. “
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