A quarrying company based in Zambia, Central Africa contacted Sykes Group to provide them with a complete solution to their pit dewatering problems.
The pit was being dewatered by submersible pumps that were proving to be troublesome as well as unreliable, costly and time consuming to repair, resulting in interruptions to the mining process. Colin Bracken, Sykes Regional Manager for Africa, suggested they invest in pumps that are specifically designed for this type of application and have been tried and tested in open cast mining operations around the world.
The main proposal and subsequent purchase included two HH220i pumps, coupled to 260 kW electric drives, twin discharge facility, all securely mounted on marine engineered floating pontoons with adjustable ballasts.
The equipment was engineered and put together in Dubai by Primax (a division of Sykes Group) and shipped to Zambia via sea and road freight. The client compared the design and engineering quality to other equipment they have on site and noted that there was no comparison — the Sykes Group design and configuration was said to be amazing and first class
The two units have now been successfully commissioned on site and as can be seen from the before and after pictures, the results are undisputable and doing the job that Colin told the client they would do.
It will more than likely take another 6 weeks to completely dewater the pit that initially had in the region of 2 million cubic meters of water inside it — the pumps will then keep the pit accessible 365 days a year allowing production to be continuous.
The Sykes pumps were supplied with stainless steel shafts, impellers and front and rear wear plates and glycol cooled mechanical seal as standard.