South Africa-based Integrated Pump Rental has recently responded to an urgent request for a dewatering pump at an East Africa mine suffering from major flooding following unseasonable high rainfall in the region.

“If not dealt with promptly, flooding in a mine environment will not only impede productivity but in some cases, lead to unsafe working conditions,” Managing Director of Integrated Pump Rental, Lee Vine, said. “All of this will result in consequential losses, which is why we understand the need to respond quickly to customer calls for dewatering solutions.”

In this recent example, a mine in an East African country reached out to the dewatering pump solution supplier after suffering the flooding and being quoted long lead times to get equipment to the site from its traditional suppliers.

Vine explained that one of the company’s diesel-driven Sykes pump sets had just completed its contract on a diamond mine in Lesotho and was en-route to the company’s facility in Johannesburg. This previous assignment saw the pump set delivered to site and commissioned just 24 hours after receiving the call from the customer.

“The unit only had 160 hours on it and we immediately did a full assessment of the pump, serviced it and tested it on our in-house test rig to ensure that it would provide the performance and reliability required for its new task,” he says.

“What is most significant is that within one week of receiving the call from the mine, we were able to get the pump set ready, across the border and installed on site dealing with the dewatering challenge,” Vine says.

The pump set comprises a Sykes XH150 high-head diesel driven pump capable of a flow rate of 100 l/s at a total dynamic head of 150 m in this application.

The skid-mounted solution will more than capably deal with the dewatering application at the mine, and the customer made the decision to purchase the unit as opposed to renting it, Integrated Pump Rental said.