Damen Equips Nautilus’ Mining Vehicles

Damen Dredging Equipment has delivered dredge pumps and valves, fitted on the remote operated deep sea mining vehicles, which will be deployed on Nautilus Minerals’ Solwara 1 project offshore Papua New Guinea.

The UK-based company, Soil Machine Dynamics (SMD), designed and built three Seafloor Production Tools (SPTs) for the project.

The first machine, the Auxiliary Cutter, has been fitted with the electrically driven dredge pump type BP45-1100, plus a number of dredge valves.

For the second machine, the Bulk Cutter, Damen delivered another dredge pump and dredge valve. The third machine, the Collecting Machine was supplied with a customized cutter unit, 3 electrically driven dredge pumps type E-BP2320 as well as a number of dredge valves.

The three SPTs were shipped in early February to a test site in Oman, where all systems will undergo wet testing. The first mining operations on the Solwara 1 are scheduled for 2018.