DREDGE ROBOTICS BREAKS NEW GROUND

DREDGE ROBOTICS' LATEST INVENTION COULD BE ITS BEST YET.

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Dredge Robotics is no stranger to collaborating with Tier 1 mining companies, with operators flocking to the innovator's inspired liner-safe dredging technology.

Having worked with the likes of BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue, Dredge's robotic solutions offer exemplary results – removing 100 per cent of accumulated sediment from lined ponds while operations remain online.

And this technology is only just gathering steam, with new products in the pipeline to take a reliable dredging platform to another level.

This includes a new weeding robot, which is offering a critical solution to an age-old problem.

“Removing weeds from lined ponds can be expensive and very disruptive,” Dredge Robotics chief executive officer Antony Old told Australian Mining.

“The task is very challenging and slow for a diver, who can’t guarantee 100 per cent weed removal because stubborn root nodules lying at the bottom of a pond regenerate after the job’s done. This is why we developed a weeding robot.”

With decades of industry experience, Old has firsthand experience of the problems mine workers face – having spent years of his career pulling weeds out of lined ponds himself.

This experience has informed his work ever since, supporting a strong “plan of attack” to deal with a persistent problem – how can weeds be chopped up and pumped out of the lined ponds without damaging the liner?

“We’ve developed five iterations of our weeding robot to ensure it’s fit for purpose,” Old said. “This is first-of-its-kind technology, so we need to be precise in our development to ensure it works and that it suits mining applications.