DAMEN FITS PUMPS AND VALVES FOR DEEP SEA MINING VEHICLES

Damen Dredging Equipment fitted dredge pumps and valves in remote operated deep sea mining vehicles also called Seafloor Production Tools (SPTs) manufactured by Soil Machine Dynamics (SMD).

This UK-based company designed and built three SPTs each for a specific task. The first ma-chine the Auxiliary Cutter is a preparatory ma-chine that deals with rough terrain and creates benches for the other machines to work; Damen delivered an electrically driven dredge pump type BP45-1100 for it plus a number of dredge valves. 

The second machine the Bulk Cutter is more powerful and has higher cutting capacity. Damen delivered another dredge pump and dredge valve set for that. 

The third machine is the Collecting Machine which collects the cut material and pumps it to the next station. For this Collecting Machine Damen delivered a customized cutter unit three electrically driven dredge pumps type E-BP2320 as well as a number of dredge valves.

In February the three SPTs were shipping to a test site in Oman where all systems will undergo wet testing. The first mining operations are scheduled for 2018 where the deep sea mining vehicles will be working in Papua New Guinea on Nauti-lus’ Solwara 1 copper-gold mining project. 

The engineering teams of both companies work closely together integrating Damen dredge pumps in the SMD trenchers. These trenchers are used for preparing the seabed before laying for instance a cable or gas pipe line.