SEDIMENT REMOVAL IN A COPPER MINE
2018 PANAMA
Project description
Cobre Panama is one of the biggest copper mines in the world, this complex comprises the Copper Mine, Processing Plant, Power Plant and the International Port of Punta RIncon.
Cobre Panama is a large open-pit copper development project. The concession is located 120 kilometres west of Panama City and 20 kilometres from the Caribbean Sea coast, in the district of Donoso, Colon province, in the Republic of Panama. The concession consists of four zones totalling 13,600 hectares.
The problem
The challenge was how to access, with a heavy duty agitator submersible slurry pump equipped with Cutter Heads, the sediments contained in different bodies of water and slurries with different concentration of solids and some of them carrying very little content of humidity.
A dredge was the answer but how could a conventional dredge move on dry land, float and navigate on deep water and move through the transition and the “in between” areas with marsh consistencies?
The solution
Dragflow proposed the Multipurpose Amphibious Dredge model DRM85/180B equipped with a very robust Hydraulic Slurry Agitator Pump and two high torque Cutter Heads EXHY20 that will disaggregate the sediments and convey them to the suction of the impeller of the pump. This unit delivers a slurry with high content of solids at a rate of 460 m3/h (2,024 USGPM). Approximate production of 450ton/h of solids. The pump was also provided with an optional Cutter Knife to deal with any organic materials, roots, thin branches or weed that may obstruct the strainer during operation.
The DRM85/180B Amphibious Dredge will be working initially pumping Mill Runoff sediments from different Sedimentation Ponds and sending them to a Waste Dump.
Other application where the Amphibious DRM Dragflow multipurpose dredge will be used in Minera Panama is on the Tailings Pond, for the purposes of relocation and in some cases for reclamation.
On a second stage, Minera Panama will acquire soon a DRAGFLOW Booster Pump to connect in line with the discharge of the amphibious dredge to deliver the slurry at a much further distance.
