Big Brute Wet & Dry Industrial Vacuum Cleaners dewater tailings dam construction site

Big Brute Wet & Dry Industrial Vacuum Cleaners dewater tailings dam construction site

Big Brute Wet & Dry Industrial Vacuum Cleaners dewatering the HDPE sheeting used in the construction of the tailing dam at Pinjarra, WA

Big Brute Wet & Dry Industrial Vacuum Cleaners are being used to dewater HDPE sheeting to help with the construction of a new tailings dam in Pinjarra, WA.

WBHO Civil, based in Western Australia, are a civil construction company providing a dedicated service and trusted expertise to mining, government, local authority and private sector clients.

WBHO Civil is currently in the process of building a tailings dam in Pinjarra, Western Australia of area 100 hectares.

The base of the dam is to be lined with a 1.5mm sheet of HDPE which has to be dry before laying the 2nd sheet of GCL, a Bentonite product, over the top of the HDPE.

There is currently 20 hectares of HDPE sheeting placed on the base of the dam which has become rippled and prevents the surface water running off.

The Lining Crew has to remove small puddles of water of less than one metre diameter up to several metres diameter from the HDPE sheeting.

As the puddles were only millimetres deep in places, the team could not use a pump to remove the water.

They approached Laurie Cheetham of Big Brute Industries Pty Ltd to trial a Big Brute Wet & Dry Industrial Vacuum Cleaner on site.

The Lining Crew successfully used two Big Brute Wet & Dry Industrial Vacuum Cleaners and a third Big Brute drum and trolley to vacuum up the water and then pump the water into a 1000litre IBC for easy removal from site.

Whilst one man operated the suction hose on the Big Brute, other operators broomed the water towards the vacuum head and so were able to successfully vacuum up the water from top of the HDPE sheet prior to another crew laying the GCL Bentonite sheet on top.

As this tailings dam is large in size, the work is progressing at an irregular rate due to the construction being done during winter and will continue on throughout the coming summer months.