Water. The single most important substance on planet earth. We couldn’t live without it. But sometimes we can’t live with it either. Sometimes we need the water gone.
Dewatering.
Have you ever tried to move a large amount of water? It’s more difficult than it sounds. It’s heavy. You can’t just pick it up either. And if you do manage to get rid of it, more just falls from the sky.
None of that matters. The water needs moving. So what do you do? You do what anyone else would. Get some pipe, a pump or two, and start moving water. But then you run into problems. Pumps need fuel, a motor too. And then there is a hill, so now the pumps aren’t even big enough. And where are you pumping the water to anyway? The ocean? Terrible for the environment, illegal too. And even if it wasn’t, the ocean is a long way away.
Fine. You get a bigger pump, a motor, a tank for your diesel and you even find a place to put the water. You can get started. Soon you’ll be able to start mining. It had better be soon. Costs are adding up. And the pit isn’t anywhere near dewatered. The budget is stretched a bit already. You need some profit. Now. It’s okay. Water is finally moving.
And then it isn’t. Well, it is. But not to where it should be. Water is going in one end, but it’s not coming out the other, at least not as much as there should be. A leak? Maybe. You don’t really know. You didn’t install leak detection. You can’t keep pumping; the hypersaline water you’re moving could cause an environmental catastrophe. Shut it off. No mining yet. No profit either.
After driving the length of the pipeline, you find it. The leak. The area’s completely flooded. How long had it been leaking for? Not long. A few hours at most. Saltwater everywhere, the environment destroyed. Too long then. Report it, you’ve got to. They have a lot of questions. Where were the V Drains, and Scour Pits? Never heard of those before. Why didn’t the control system shut it off? What control system? Why didn’t the leak detection system tell you there was a leak? There was no leak detection.
People are unhappy. And still, no profit.
And what could you have done differently? There was no way to know about these things. You just wanted to move some water. It was stopping the mining. A problem.
Dewatering.
Harder than it sounds. But then, this is just a story. It doesn’t need to be your story.
Speak to an expert. Speak to Rapallo.
We design reliable, robust dewatering solutions. Integrated leak detection, drainage, and regulatory compliance. Moving water is easy. Moving it safely, reliably, and compliantly is not. We keep your project on schedule and budget.
Rapallo. Supporting the Gold Fields since 1987.
