Solving the underground dirty water dilemma
Today, increasingly mechanised operations are reshaping what is possible underground and, in the process, creating a new set of challenges for the infrastructure supporting them.
Modern decline mines are being designed around machinery on a scale that would have been difficult to imagine only a few decades ago. But greater mechanisation changes almost every supporting requirement of an underground operation, including water management.
As development rates accelerate, the volume of water that needs to be moved has increased dramatically. The challenge is compounded by the fact that modern development faces move too quickly for conventional settling and filtration systems to be practical.
For Challenge Pumps, three decades of working in these conditions has driven the development of pumping systems designed to handle dirty, abrasive mine water without relying on extensive pre-filtration.
Challenge Pumps managing director Paul Luscombe says traditional and expensive filtration systems are simply not compatible with today’s highly mechanised mining methods.
“We used to dewater mines at rates of about 5L/s and today we’re dewatering mines at flow rates of 40 to 50L/s in the same ore body,” he said.
Challenge Pumps WEARTUFF technology is designed for demanding underground environments, with single pumps capable of vertical lifts of up to 400–500m.
“Before this technology was developed, we were lifting water at maybe 100m at a time,” Mr Luscombe said.
WEARTUFF pumps are the only helical rotor pumps designed from the ground up specifically for underground mine dewatering. Compared to traditional pumps. WEARTUFF delivers at least twice the service life, 115% faster maintenance procedures and 83% improved efficiency.
“Beyond just the sheer volumes we can now move, we’re also manufacturing pumps with very high tolerances,” Mr Luscombe said.
Challenge Pumps has recently expanded its workshops in both WA and Victoria while also making the move to inhouse manufacturing, investing in Austrian scrolling machinery, robotics and modern CNC machining centres. The result is greater manufacturing precision, with engineering tolerances reduced from around 1mm to as little as 0.1mm on critical components
Today, more than 100 active mining operations rely on WEARTUFF technology, with more than 1000 dewatering systems supplied across more than 20 countries.
Challenge Pumps recently?launched its WEARTUFF Gen 2 range, incorporating improvements to design and materials, with the development process focused not only on durability and performance but also on reducing lead times and providing greater support to customers.
The result is a pump range refined through decades of real-world experience and engineered to deliver reliable performance in some of the industry’s most demanding mine dewatering applications.
