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Superior’s industrial brand offer floating pump pontoons that offer a complete tailings recovery system which will improve your operating budget. Talk to Superior today for an ROI.
Pump pontoons options can be used in a variety of additional tasks such as dewatering pits, flood relief, sewerage pontoons, irrigation pontoons for agricultural dams and associated floating access gangways are some of the requirements for which Superior can provide solutions.
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Superior recently constructed two custom-designed and built pontoons for an operational mine site for Glencore in Mt Isa.
The pontoons were designed to support two 11 Tonne pumps for a new stormwater dam.
Glencore Project Engineer, Joel O’Neill said the pumps are twice as large as generally used and the job posed a few challenges for Superior.
“The site is surrounded by large machinery, so access is tricky. Then, there was no site to inspect – it was under construction at the time and will be empty for a while until the rains come, anywhere from now until February. We don’t get much rain – maybe two or three days a year – but when it comes, it’s torrential.”
Glencore chose Superior for its expertise in flotation and managing large projects from concept to completion, also on recommendation from the pump supplier, and for its competitive price.
Superior’s in-house engineering design office undertook the design drawings on the project, with full design reports and calculations made available as part of the offering. With a few modifications at the final stages, the 15 x 9m structure was built in a collaboration by Superior’s industrial steel fabrication shop and roto-moulding production.
The entire system will float on a steel frame, complete with GRP decking, unsinkable positive flotation modules and a steel skid base for ease of handling. EDGE 1 handrails have been installed to ensure worker safety when operating the pumps, refuelling and testing the water.
Superior’s Johan Tan said the pontoons had to be stacked because of the 11 Tonne weight of the pumps. “It was a challenge to arrange pontoons in a suitable array so they are fit for purpose,” he added.
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This week proved very busy as the Superior team rolled out another SuperiorWORK integrated pump platform for the mining industry. Over the years the basic frame on floats to support a pump has evolved and now the in house designs are quite sophisticated. We find ourselves drawing on the 25 years of experience to make the systems rugged yet user friendly to assemble in remote locations where a guaranteed outcome is essential.
The client is often several tiers up from us so we start by gaining a detailed understanding of the needs and this is then engineered into the plans. In this case it entailed a double electric centrifugal pump station, associated delivery pipe work and flow meters, control station location, gangway landing, cable management and temporary flotation for delivery to final positioning. All of these components had to float level and this was proven in a water test prior to shipment. The four separate pontoon units were attached using the Superior elastomeric hinge system.
There has also been a simultaneous delivery of marine works for the WICET project in Gladstone with Monadelphous Muhibbah Marine (MMM). SuperiorWORK supplied, fabricated, surface treated and delivered two steel pontoons, aluminium gangways and landings with quality assurance documentation. The challenge of rotating the 20 tonne pontoons for positioning of efficient welding was handled with purpose built lifting assemblies attached to either end of the pontoons. Phil’s Cranes did the rest with careful efficient rotations on a 12 hour basis as required.
The delivery of these projects from the Gold Coast has been a team effort with many companies assisting Superior to be successful in the ENR (Energy Natural Resource) sector. As we have diversified, we have seen opportunities throughout our supply chain to add value in this sector. An example is the painting, assembly and water testing of product that was ably handled at the Boat Works facility at Coomera. This is gratifying to see the marine industry expertise able to expand our relevance into new markets where we can provide value.
