When one of Australia’s largest iron ore mine needed to move extremely large volumes of water to one collection pond – but from various locations scattered around their massive Pilbara site – they called the dewatering experts at Sykes Group.
Brett Hansen, Sykes Group Territory Manager WA/NT, has assisted this customer before and knows the site well. A large-scale export operation, the depth of the pits and the mine site topography is constantly changing, so the client was looking for a high-quality, value for money dewatering solution that could easily be upgraded and upfitted when required.
“My customer’s love the plug and play options that are available on the Sykes Group pump range. It’s easy to up-fit any standard unit with premium features to meet any customer requirement” Brett enthused.
“Extremely flexible in application, the clever pump design offers a huge choice of accessories that can be fitted as dewatering scope changes. Even more, the heavy duty manufacturing standards of all parts and accessories exceed the expectations of the mining market.” said Brett.
For this particular mine site, they needed a pump that could easily handle at least 130 litres per second with 50 metre head pressure. In addition, the dewatering unit was required to run for up to 5 days (on low revs), provide a suction lift to 9 metres and offer large solids handling capacity.
“They often need to pump large particles – up to 50mm in size – without the pump getting blocked. And the client wanted their new pump fitted with flow switches, plus an auto-start and stop float switch” Brett explained.
After carefully considering this project scope – and the changing terrain on this site – Brett and the team at Sykes Group recommended an MH150 from the premium pump range.
“The medium-head pump range was specifically developed to combat harsh mining environments – it’s excellent for the type of site with deep pits, high water flow and long pipe runs. It offers an efficiency rating of 77%, can easily handle solids and provides industry-beating fuel consumption and emission control” Brett told us.
With its tough 316 stainless steel impeller and wear plate, the pump also offers superior corrosion resistance and so protects the pump internals from rust. In fact, the long list of features available on the medium-head pump range from Sykes Group makes it an industry leader in the field of mine site dewatering.
“It also offers variable pump speeds which allows the pump to adjust pressure and flow to suit the required pump duty. In addition, it offers automatic self-priming. That means they simply put the pump inlet hose in the water, turn it on and the pump will automatically prime and start pumping the fluid” said Brett proudly.
“Another reason mining engineers and maintenance crews choose to install an Sykes Group pump is because the pumping components are coupled so closely to the engine. This significantly increases the ease of fitting and eliminates any misalignment issues during transport or pump operations”.
“When clients can’t afford extended periods of downtime due to ground water issues, they call Sykes Group. The renowned performance and reliability of every Sykes Group pump is based on their robust design and manufacturing”
“The units are so sturdy – they can easily and safely be transported, pushed and pulled around the site” he said.
For more information about the range of Sykes Group pumps – or to discuss upfitting options on your existing unit – speak to one of our sales and project efficiency experts on frecall 1300 255 444 or visit our website.
