AN ENVIRONMENTAL LIFESAVER

THROUGH ITS INSPIRED DREDGING TECHNOLOGY, DREDGE ROBOTICS IS HELPING MINING COMPANIES MITIGATE ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS.

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Just as much as they are important assets on a mine site, lined ponds can also be hazardous waste catchments which, if not maintained properly, can spell trouble for a mining company.

Dredge Robotics has developed a solution to enable the safe dredging of lined ponds without damaging the liner, with its technology able to clean ponds containing all kinds of "exotic liquor".

"Exotic liquor refers to any liquid that is corrosive, whether it's high pH or low pH," Dredge Robotics chief executive officer Antony Old told Australian Mining.

"It's an encompassing catch-all for anything and everything that's nasty for the robot to be in, and our tech is designed to keep humans out of those environments, so it's a good fit."

Dredge has extensive experience in executing projects in a range of conditions, whether it's pH 13 lined oxalate ponds or pH 2 conditions including sulphuric acid and pregnant leach solution (PLS) ponds.

Other exotic liquor conditions include the cyanide-rich environments synonymous with gold mining, ferric chloride-rich environments, or alumina, nickel and lithium processing loops.

"There's a real gamut of environments you can get exposed to, and you've got to understand the intricacies of what each one is, and then have gear that's tooled to handle it," Old said.