Equipment rental agency Integrated Pump Rental is well positioned to cater for the rise in urgent dewatering requirements, as a result of the rainy season and subsequent heavy downpours in South Africa and its neighbouring countries, through its market-ready range of dewatering solutions.

While these solutions can be specific to individual site applications and conditions, Integrated Pump Rental business development manager Steven du Toit cites the company’s Sykes diesel-driven trailer- or skid-mounted pumping units, or its range of submersible dewatering pumps, as examples of some of the company’s dewatering pumping solutions.

The Sykes range caters for emergency dewatering, which Du Toit says “goes hand-in-hand” with summer rainfall and the associated downpours in South Africa.

Integrated Pump Rental’s partnership with an extensive network of distributors enables it to assist in any geographical location, including Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), when downpours can result in emergency situations for operations.

The company’s solutions are not necessarily permanent or even on site, but this does not affect the Integrated Pump Rental team’s ability to speedily assist with an operation, especially when water needs to be kept out of critical areas on site.

Integrated Pump Rental’s diverse range of equipment – from small electrical submersible pumps to 90 kW units, various diesel-driven dewatering pumps and trailer units – enables it to offer a suitable pump that is specific to the application, Du Toit explains.

“We not only look at giving you a pump, we look at giving you a solution,” he notes.

While not every dewatering requirement can be planned, Du Toit tells Mining Weekly that Integrated Pump Rental offers rental solutions to assist with cost reduction while increasing operational availability. This is a good option to consider, should an operation not have adequate funding to have a permanent solution installed, he adds.

The company also offers clients the option of buying the rental equipment after use.

Additionally, many operations have been caught unaware because they have not been desilting water storage facilities or process water ponds. In this regard, Integrated Pump Rental offers the SlurrySucker dredging system, which is suitable for the regular cleaning of process water ponds, return water dams or other water storage areas.

It is also ideal for dredging and cleaning water capture areas where silt or slimes are an issue, or where water retention and water-holding capacity are being threatened.

The SlurrySucker Mini can extract 120 m3/h of slurry/water mixture, equating to between 30 t and 40 dry tons an hour, while the SlurrySucker Maxi will remove between 60 t and 70 dry tons an hour.

Using these products enables Integrated Pump Rental to create water capacity and “recover valuable material that was lying dormant in the dams for the customer”, Du Toit concludes.