Pontoon Open Pit Dewatering Packages Stage 1 – WA

Pontoon Open Pit Dewatering Packages Stage 1, WA

The Woodie Woodie mine site is ConsMin‘s key asset and is located approximately 400km south-east of Port Hedland. The operation consists of open-pit mining across several pits and a 1.6Mtpa processing plant. The tenement consists of 1,290km2 of exploration tenements and 100km2 in the mining corridor. Manganese ore has been mined at Woodie since the early 1950s, with manganese being the first bulk commodity exported from Port Hedland some 14 years prior to iron ore exports. ConsMin is proposing to extend the life of the Woodie Woodie mine, extending the mine boundaries to the north, south, and west, increasing the Clearing Permit Boundary area from 7,589ha to create a Development Envelope of 12,708ha.

NPE were engaged by our valued long-term client to remove surface water from their open-pit mine so they could expand it.

Client requirements for the first stage included dewatering to 146RL at 500L/sec. To accomplish this, NPE provided and installed a pair of pontoon-mounted pumps that had undergone extensive engineering.  These incredibly powerful pumps were fitted with Cummins QST30 engines delivering 1,000hp. Because pump sets were supplied separately, the installation was flexible and simple.

The supplied package included 1,000L and 10,000L fuel tanks. Tank lines were fully encapsulated and installed with Leak Detection sensors that triggered the electric valve to shut if fuel leaks occurred. NPE handled all the re-fuelling requirements.

NPE packages also included telemetry, giving our client visibility on the critical engine and pump data as well as pumping flow rates (instantaneous and cumulative). Additionally, both pontoons could be remotely started, stopped, and controlled.

We provided all necessary staff and equipment to service these units via our boat-mounted service module as part of NPE’s Labour and Site Services Supply.