Mining Industry Pumping Solutions

There are many mines & mining companies using our IVAC vacuum equipment and they are discovering that we are the equipment to use for heavy duty pumping solutions. A lot of mines ask for IVAC only now because they know how well our equipment works for these types of jobs. After all, that’s why we came up with them in the first place. The IVAC team has extensive experience in mine mechanical processes and know a lot of the costs associated with getting control over mine dewatering. Many companies have done business case studies and have all found that our PV500 Pneumatic vacuum can totally pay for itself in just a few short months and in some cases just weeks.

Mine Sump Mucking

Sumps are definitely something that IVAC excels at as this is basically why the equipment was developed in the first place. Within the mining industry, it is crazy how many differentials, brakes and even the odd engine that sumps have cost mining companies, let alone using production equipment like scoops that could be doing profitable work like mucking ore. If they only had the real numbers on how much this abuse has cost them over the years when there is a vacuum/discharge unit available that can easily do this work for much less. Ditches & sumps are easy for our equipment and you will find that we can handle that type of material like slimes and sludge’s very well.

Muck beside belt in an underground mine

Walkway after IVAC PV500 unit was used to vacuum out the materials

IVAC manufactures industrial vacuum equipment and sells our equipment the world over and we also have provided the crews to do the work that gives the client a chance to see the equipment in operation and gets it all set-up at the start, it is also a very good way to have their own crews trained up properly on how to use the equipment.

Vacuuming and Pumping Mud, Sludges, Gravel and Sand

Pumping mud and muck is not a job that a lot of people want to do and our competitively priced crews can take that dirty job off managements’ hands and saves you money at the same time. Our crews can definitely pay for ourselves in just the savings from the possible other pump repairs/replacement costs alone. If only more mines could actually see a true number on what these costs are because picking IVAC makes so much sense.

The IVAC PV500 was positioned above the tanks in the catwalk and these tanks that were mudded in were emptied by pumping out the material from above.

Some Different Mining Projects

Like the thickener tanks, where PV500’s were used to vacuum up the 80 feet required to the catwalk.

At Sifto Salt, we vacuumed up from shaft bottom to the level above since there was a bulkhead that didn’t allow us to bring the Ivac to shaft bottom. On that job, the cheese weights were buried due to materials that filled the shaft over the years and added 85 feet to the shaft bottom elevation. Our crew, vacuumed down the 85 feet to expose catwalks and ladderways that people didn’t know even existed at shaft bottom. The picked up materials were simply discharged on the level the vacuum was located 185 feet above.

At Kidd Creek, the tailings dam leaked and contaminated a beaver pond about 1/2 mile away. Our crew went through the ice & 10 feet of water in the winter and picked up the bottom 3-4 feet of contaminants and sent it back into the tailings pond once the dam was repaired.

Another Kidd job was done when they were sinking the “C” shaft. A bulkhead was installed under the skip compartment to protect workers below and every time the material built up to about 35-40 feet deep the IVAC PV500 has used to pick-up the spillage and send it to a loading pocket 400 feet above. At Tec-Corona in Marathon, the IVAC’s were used to clean-up spillage and slimes around the conveyors and feeder as shown in the pictures a page above.

In Toronto, we have 2 Ivac PV500’s that pump “ALL” the material that vacuum trucks from the city and it’s contractors come and dump their loads. I have seen up to 5 trucks dumping into that sump at once and we look after thousands of truckloads per month without stopping. They work so well that the company is opening another yard at the other end of Toronto and ordered IVAC’s to handle all the material there too. There is not a pump in the world that could come near what our vacuum/delivery units are doing!

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