MechChem Africa November-December 2024

SA’s dewatering specialist IPR joins Atlas Copco MCA talks to Lee Vine of South Africa’s specialty pump rental, dewatering and dredging company, IPR, about the new opportunities opening up across Africa as result becoming part of the Atlas Copco Group.

W hile IPR will remain a separate legal entity within the Atlas Copco Group, specialising in rental and sales of dewatering and dredging equipment, Lee Vine, who has been managing director of IPR for the past 10 years says he is excited by the opportunity to leverage Atlas Copco's considerable resources for expansion into Africa. “Over the years, we have developed a unique set of skills for dewatering, desilting and dredging, mostly for South Africa’s mining community, but also for helping municipalities to overcome their water issues. As part of Atlas Copco’s Specialty rental division, we now have access to all the Atlas Copco pumping products as well as access to its resources and branches across Africa. This means we can bring a wealth of pumping and dredging expertise to companies across the region,” Vine assures. In terms of pumping brands, Atlas Copco offers an extensive range which includes both submersible and diesel driven units and includes models that are well-known in Africa such as the Weda dewatering and sludge pumps and the Varisco diesel driven self-priming pumps. In addition to the Atlas Copco range, IPR is also the authorised distributor for Toyo heavy-duty slurry pumps. “IPR has the expertise and knowl edge of what is typically needed for dewatering on mine and quarry operations across Africa, he adds. Most notably, IPR, through its locally manu factured SlurrySucker, brings mine-pond dredg ing expertise to the partnership. “SlurrySucker, the dredging part of IPR’s business, has been around now since our inception, and I was per sonally involved in designing the units we use today. We have been successfully dredging pro cessed water plants for the last 10 years, often as a rental service, but we also manufacture and sell these units should a facility have an ongoing need,” Vine tells MCA . After thickening and dewatering the final product, mines almost always have some re tained slurry in their wastewater streams, which settles on the bottom of their water ponds. IPR gets involved when there is no longer sufficient water retention in the pond. “Our SlurrySucker is designed to offer a cost effective and reliable solution for dredging the floor of a pond or wa ter storage facility to restore the water holding capacity,” he explains. Typically, the SlurrySucker solution is provided on a contract basis. Depending on the composition of the slurry,

mines will often pump it back into their recovery circuit. There can be a lot of mineral value in these slurries that can often more than recover the dredging costs, Vine points out. “In one case study in the DRC where a SlurrySucker was used for two months to restore the pond’s holding capacity, the operation recovered a significant amount of saleable material from the dredged tailings,” he adds. “The beauty of our dredging solution is that we have eliminated any chance of the plastic pond liner being damaged, because we don’t rely on a cutter. We use water agitation to thin the slurry just enough to enable it to be efficiently pumped from the floor of the pond,” Vine explains. Commenting on the range of Toyo pumps, Vine says this Japanese brand of heavy-duty submersible slurry pumps has a 65 year track record globally. “These pumps can deal with the heaviest of slurries and are ideally suited to the rigours of the mine rental market. We do however offer units for rent as well as direct purchase and underpinning the robust construction of the Toyo pumps is that they are routinely used as the main dredge pump on our third-generation SlurrySuckers,” he says. Unpacking more information on the Atlas Copco dewatering pumps, he says that WEDA

submersible pumps cover the power range from 0.4 kW all the way up to 64 kW. “The Atlas Copco Varisco diesel driven pumps are self-priming and range from a standard two-inch discharge right up to a 12-inch. These a can be trailer or skid mounted. Likewise, the larger die sel driven auto prime Atlas Copco dewatering pump ranges, which include the PAC and PAS units, can accommodate heads of up to 160 m with flows up to 1 600 m 3 /h,” Vine adds. “We are now coming into the rainy season and, as always, IPR is cautioning mines and quarries to ensure they are well-prepared. If any mining area gets flooded out, there are serious and very expensive consequences in terms of lost production and damage to equipment that is underwater as a result of the influx of water, as well as the obvious safety risks. “As the official vehicle for the delivery of Atlas Copco pump sales and rental solutions to mine, quarry and plant operators across Africa, we are ready to rapidly deploy rental solutions for when the flooding starts, or to sell the pumps needed to dewater mine shafts and pits,” concludes Lee Vine. www.pumprental.co.za Lee Vine, the managing director of IPR, which is now part of the Atlas Copco Group.

Toyo pumps are routinely used as the main dredge pump on IPR’s third-generation SlurrySuckers.

16 ¦ MechChem Africa • November-December 2024