Pit & Quarry, July 2009
D R E D G I N G DEEP SANDS The worlds deepest mining dredge is coupled with the longest drive train ever to reach the bottom of an underwater sand mine I n underwater sand mining as with any problem solving effort getting to the bottom of it is the ultimate goal So when the Florida Rock Division of Vulcan Materials considered it was nearing the end of its capacity to dredge the depths of one of its deepest underwater sand deposits it considered it might need a clamshell style dredge rather than its preferred style of underwater pump dredge to get to the bottom In late 2005 Vulcan contacted Dredging Supply Co DSC of Reserve La to discuss building a clamshell dredge that could take the underwater mine depth from 70 to 200 ft allowing another 40 years of underwater sand Using CAD and Finite Element Analysis software engineers from Dredging Supply Co and Vulcan Materials designed what is said to be the worlds deepest mining dredge to be commissioned in an underwater sand quarry mining Dredging Supply had another idea We f loated the idea of building them an underwater suction pump dredge and their question was at 200 ft has it ever been done before DSC President Bob Wetta said To our knowledge it has not Weve built dredges that go to 120 ft so this was quite a stretch but we were not at all afraid of the concept We figured this one is just a little bigger BY JACK BROUGHTON Take note The dredge will be able to excavate suction and pump to the surface 250 to 300 cu yd of sand per hour A rare dusting of snow in Reserve La covers the lever room electrical room and equipment on the DSC dredge 14 PIT QUARRY July 2009 www pitandquarry com
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