An underground coal mine in Australia is piloting the use of a self-filling tank to help clean up sludge and slurries.

The mine in question is Anglo American’s Moranbah North coal operation in Queensland and the product is a new hydraulics-fitted version of Brain Industries’ self-filling tanker, Brain said.

Brain’s Managing Director, Gillian Summers, said the tanker is an advancement on Brain’s air-driven model which enables vacuum recovery, haulage and dumping of heavily solids laden slurries and sludges containing lumps up to 150 mm in size.

Summers said the new 6 cu m tanker has been produced in response to calls from the underground mining industry for more versatility and can be run from any LHD.

She said powerful jet pumps mean Brain’s self-filling tankers vacuum-load continuously to achieve high loading rates. Also, it is constructed aluminium free to comply with mining regulations.

“While the new hydraulics version was produced for underground mines, our self-filling tankers are also suited to applications in hard-rock mining, tunnelling and contract cleaning services,” she said.

“With no moving parts in contact with the material, continuous loading of large lump solids, including waxy, fibrous and abrasive materials, is possible without detriment to the pump.”

Loading stops automatically at a high level when handling wet materials, according to Brain. Excess water can be drained from the tailgate valves to allow top-up of load, maximising hauled solids.

Summers said the tanker is not only easy to use but easy to empty, with the use of a 250-mm diameter dump hatch or full-sized rear door.

Existing customers can also benefit from this new technology, with the company’s line of air driven self-filling tankers able to be retrofitted with hydraulics.

Brain’s self-filling tankers can be skid-mounted or trailer-mounted. The skid-mounted unit is made to be transported on a flatbed trailer or truck using the side-accessed forklift sockets, with the multi-purpose vehicle unit also able to be transported above ground in this way. The trailer-mounted self-filling tanker has a rocker arm, load sharing wheels with oil-filled hubs and solid tyres, Brain added.