Downer EDI Mining [a division of Downer EDI Limited] has engaged Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment [Brisbane] to design, manufacture, install and commission a Heavy Vehicle Wash Bay and associated plant treatment equipment at the Meandu Coal Mine located in Tarong, South East Queensland.

Since January 2013 Downer EDI Mining has been providing mining services at Meandu Mine as part of their long-term rolling contract with TEC Coal Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stanwell Corporation Limited. Downer provides a total mine service to TEC Coal, including mine management, planning, drilling, overburden removal (including dragline and truck-and-shovel operations), coal mining, coal processing, rehabilitation, and maintenance of mobile and fixed plant.

Downer EDI's Heavy Vehicle Wash Bay project tender was won primarily due to Dowdens ability to expertly design / manufacture / install and commission specialised equipment, built in-house & onsite to meet our specific client's unique requirements. With a history of successful installations over the past 15 years within the Queensland Mining Sector, Dowdens is Queensland's premier pumping & water treatment organisation.

Downer's project brief to Dowdens Brisbane was for the design / manufacture / installation and commissioning of a Heavy Vehicle Wash Bay capable of processing a minimum of 5 vehicles per day, with each vehicle taking approximately 1 hour to wash. Meandu Mine required this new Heavy Vehicle Wash Bay to be constructed after the mine had recently purchased a fleet of new generation trucks (KOMATSU 830E Trucks) which are considerably larger in size compared to their existing fleet.

To ensure Meandu Mine continued to meet their Environmental Discharge requirements Dowdens designed and incorporated 4x Settling Pits & 3x Oily Water Separators into the construction of the Heavy Vehicle Wash Bay. In Queensland it is a legal requirement for mine sites to treat (separate) any sludge or oil from any waste water coming from a Heavy Vehicle Wash Bay.

Pictured below you can see the 4x large Settling Pits (empty) that are used to catch / store (via gravity feed) waste water from the Wash Pad area. The waste water generally contains some grease, oil, coal fine and soil (mud). The coal fine, mud and other solid particles washed off the trucks is allowed to settle to the bottom of the Settling Pits - the pits are then intermittently emptied by a Bobcat excavator.

The waste water (still containing grease and oil) is pumped from the Settling Pits via progressive cavity pumps into 3 individual 'Oily Water Separators' to remove the remaining contaminants. Once the waste water has been through this treatment stage it is pumped back into Meandu Mine's network of onsite holding dams to be used in other site extraction and processing applications.

Dowdens design philosophy for this project was: Cost Effectiveness - Current Best Practice - Ease of Installation - Simple Plant Operation - Plant Reliability & Reduced Maintenance.

Key Project System Components are listed below (click for component specs):

• 3x 47kL Poly Tanks for onsite Raw Water storage
• 1x Southern Cross 100x65-250 Cannon Pump
• 1x Grundfos 3kW Hose Reel Pump
• 8x 65mm Orion Sentinel Water Cannons
• 6x Heavy Duty Hose Reels
• 2x Foaming Units
• 1x 13.5kL Detergent Storage Poly Tank
• 1x 1kL Dilution Poly Tank

• 1x Grundfos 0.55kW Detergent Transfer Pump
• 4x Grundfos 7.5kW & Tsurumi 3kW Submersible Sump Pumps
• 2x Oily Water Seperators, Associated Pumps, Instrumentation & Control Board
• 1x Oily Water Hydrocyclone Seperator with Netzsch iFD-Stator® 2.0 Pump, Instrumentation & Control Board
• 1x Skimmer Pump
• 2x Control Panels
• Custom Built Associated Galvanised Pipework

Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment [Mackay] have delivered yet another Soft Hose Travelling Irrigator to a local Sarina Sugarcane Farmer.

Harvey Matsen [pictured below] operates a 100ha sugarcane farm in Sarina. Due to the lack of rainfall during the 2014/15 growing season he decided to purchase a TRAILCO T-450-2 Soft Hose Travelling Irrigator to better manage the irrigation of his cane.

Wanting to purchase his new irrigator from a local business Harvey sought the services of the Dowdens Mackay Agricultural Sales Team - one of the most experienced Ag sales teams in Australia, with over 125 years of combined irrigation system design and operational experience between them. As a company that has built its foundation on the servicing and development of agricultural pumping systems, Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment have the experience to engineer a solution to suit any agricultural application. For over 40 years Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment have been selling & servicing irrigation products throughout Central & Northern Queensland - designing each and every system to improve farming efficiencies, reduce downtime and increase the longevity of pumps / irrigators.

Jeff Roberts from the Dowdens Mackay Agricultural Sales Team visited Harvey's farm on a number of occasions to investigate, design and then match an irrigator and irrigation plan to best suit the property. Taking into consideration the terrain, existing pump capabilities and source water availability Jeff suggested Harvey purchase a TRAILCO T-450-2 Soft Hose Travelling Irrigator with irrigation gun.

Harvey has access to pressurised irrigation water from the nearby Kinchant Dam. Located in Sarina near Kinchant Dam, meaning this farm has access to irrigation water coming via the Eton Water Supply Scheme. Kinchant Dam, situated near Mt Kinchant, 6kms southeast of Mirani, is the only major storage in the Eton Water Supply Scheme. It was constructed to capture runoff water from the small portion of the catchment of Sandy Creek and water pumped from the Pioneer River. Three water harvesting pump stations are located at Mirani Weir below the confluence of Cattle Creek and the Pioneer River, and divert water into an 8km diversion channel into Kinchant Dam. At farm door the dam feed water arrives at between 20 - 30psi. With the TRAILCO T-450-2 Soft Hose Travelling Irrigator needing a higher pressure to operate efficiently Dowdens utilised the farm's existing Power-Take-Off (PTO) Tractor driven booster pump, raising the feed water to over 70psi.

The T-450-2 is able to apply 50mm of water onto a 2ha area of cane whilst travelling along 300m of 4" soft hose - delivering 22.5L/sec @ 70psi. Together with flood irrigation (using the gravity fed Kinchant Dam feed water), an existing travelling irrigator and the new T-450-2 Harvey can now irrigate his property in half the time. In times of low rainfall when young cane is most vulnerable to dry soil conditions, Harvey can now irrigate his young cane faster ensuring they take root quicker and go on to deliver a better overall yield. The T-450-2 is an extremely efficient and reliable soft hose travelling irrigator - so much so it can easily pull Harvey's tractor towards it as it travels down the feed hose on an irrigating run [pictured below].

Anglo American's Australian Coal division engaged Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment [Mackay] to deliver 8 specialised underground pumping PODs used for various dewatering applications at their Grosvenor Coal Mine, located 190km southwest of Mackay in Moranbah, Central Queensland.

The Grosvenor mine is a developing underground longwall operation that makes up part of Anglo American's plan to triple hard coking coal production at their Moranbah mine sites. Located next to their existing Moranbah North coal mine, Grosvenor is set to produce up to 5 million tonnes of hard coking coal per annum for export. The Grosvenor mine utilises a 10km overland conveyor to transport high-quality metallurgical coal to the Moranbah North Coal Handling & Preparation Plant.

Construction on Anglo American's $1.95 billion Grosvenor longwall project began back in January 2013, with the development celebrating a number of industry firsts including being the first underground coal mine in Queensland to use a tunnel boring machine to develop the drifts, or access tunnels, in coal mine development. Anglo American aimed to have the Grosvenor mine raise the bar for onsite system and production efficiency - making the supply of unique underground POD pumping systems a perfect match for Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment's experienced Engineering Department.

Dowdens Engineering Department's comprehensive abilities have been on the radar of many Central Queensland/Bowen Basin mines for some time through direct contact and working with industry leading consulting engineering firms. Dowdens ability to expertly design/manufacture/install and commission unique equipment built to specific client needs, together with a history of successful installations over the past 15 years in the Bowen Basin has positioned the business as Queensland's premier pumping & water treatment organisation.

Underground Pumping PODs are used in mines as part of the site water management process. Mine water is collected from sumps and wet areas by Wilden air operated diaphragm pumps and delivered to PODs where water level sensors then activate the pump and transfer the collected mine water to a mains pump station, underground storage dam or directly out of the mine portal. Mine water is typically dirty with coal fine, rocks and dirt; therefore slurry pumps are needed to handle such water. PODs can be located in hazardous areas and can be fitted with Flame proof motors and motor controllers with PLC (Programmable Logic Controllers) and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition).

The Grosvenor mine site requirements meant each POD needed to have a 200kW power rating. With the site's physical constraints (i.e. the underground mined roof height and width, as well as the site lifting equipment for transporting) meant careful consideration was required for the overhung load whilst transporting this equipment. Capacity of a standard Dowdens POD is 4m3 with a 110kW motor, however with the larger flow rate required to and from the POD meant a 6m3 capacity working volume was needed. Bigger capacity and higher duty equated to a larger size motor and pump, more robust steel framework and additional accessibility for scheduled servicing.

Dowdens standard POD design incorporates a dirty water receiving area. This area, integral to the main hopper (container for collection of bulk material such as rock or soil), ensures particles that are too large for the pump to digest and transport are separated and manually removed periodically ensuring trouble free pumping.

Pumps selected by Dowdens for this harsh duty were Stalker 400SHD model with mechanical seals, seal lubrication and cooling. Motors selected were WEG brand Flameproof mine spec motors. The control for the pumps is a flameproof 200kW model with PLC and HMI (Human Machine Interface) screens. The controller starts and stops the pump, whilst also monitoring for faults and relaying important information to the mine surface via SCADA. Dowdens PODs built for the Grosvenor mine have the ability of easily interchanging the motors/pumps for differing duties. These will be identified as 200kW and 132kW cassettes. To accommodate this change the Main Control Unit (MCU) has the capacity to operate at either 200kW or 132kW with only slight changes to load controls.

The larger size and the flexibility to change the duty, together with Dowdens strategic POD site placement advice has enabled Anglo American less manoeuvring of the POD through development, saving costly underground labour and downtime. Without reliable pumping the mine's production slows/halts causing delays and safety issues which cost the mine many thousands of dollars each day. It was imperative the system worked and was extremely reliable. This project was delivered on time and within budget. Key project system components are listed below:

Unique features specific to the 8x Underground Dewatering Grosvenor PODs included:

• Fold out access platforms for operators to access the instruments and simplify servicing
• Direct fill points to prevent foaming of the mine water
• Overflow points for PODs operation on a steep slope
• Forklift access to both the pump and motor cassette

Key Project Features:

• PODs for this mine have the ability of interchangeable motors/pumps for differing duties
• PODs larger size, flexibility to change their duty together with Dowdens strategic POD placement advice enabled Anglo American to save on costly underground labour & pump downtime
• Safety & Design workshop hosted by Dowdens Mackay enabled project stakeholders to table all development & maintenance requirements ensuring seamless system delivery
• Project was delivered on time and within budget

Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment's Rockhampton branch working closely with Dowdens Pumping - Mackay's Industrial & Fabrication Workshops have successfully designed, manufactured and commissioned a Customised Dewatering Pump System for YANCOAL Australia. YANCOAL own and operate the YARRABEE Coal Mine & Boonal Joint Venture Coal Load Out Facility that is located 40 kilometres north-east of the township of Blackwater, QLD in Central Queensland's Bowen Basin. The Boonal Joint Venture is a coal load out facility located on the Capricorn Highway in Central Queensland, Australia. Coal from both the Yarrabee Coal Mine and Jellinbah Coal Mine are transported via rail link to the Port of Gladstone from the Boonal coal load out facility.

After initial site visits Dowdens Pumping - Rockhampton were able to measure the height and distance required for the dewatering pump system, as well as clearly establish pipe sizes and required flow rates to adequately meet the clients onsite dewatering requirements. This led to the in-house design of the unit by Dowdens Pumping - Mackay's Engineering Department. Once the proposal had been accepted by the client CAD drawings were immediately created and passed onto the Dowdens Industrial Fabrication Workshop.

Boonal Joint Venture's Customised Dewatering Pump System Supply Scope:

• The Yanmar diesel engine recommended by Dowdens Pumping - Rockhampton ensured long term problem free operation
• All fabrication, assembly and performance testing was conducted by Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment in-house & onsite guaranteeing product quality

As Dowdens Pumping are an authorised FLOWSERVE Pumps Distributor, we were able to quickly and easily size and source a FLOWSERVE Hydro Titan Pump. The Hydro Titan 100x65-250 Pump has a capable duty of 14 l/sec (@ 50m total head) and perfectly matched the clients site requirements. From here Dowdens Industrial Fabrication Workshop welded the skid base together which was then bunded and fully hot dip galvanised. This innovative system utilised a universal coupling, installed between the pump and motor to reduce the chance of miss alignment occurring between the pump and engine.

Dowdens Industrial Fabrication Workshop then proceeded to assemble and mount the 125l diesel fuel tank, Yanmar 3TNV84TEPP-PE 3-Cylinder Diesel Engine, Hydro Titan 100x65-250 Pump and install the universal coupling. Dowdens Electricians then connected the battery and solar array charger module to the canopy [pictured below], whilst mounting the Yanmar 'Engine Protection Unit'. The engine was then taken outside and tested. Once all this was completed it was transported to site where final commissioning was successfully completed.

The complete Boonal Joint Venture's Customised Dewatering Pump System was designed, installed and commissioned by Dowdens Pumping on time and within budget. Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment's Rockhampton branches design philosophy for this project was: Cost Effectiveness - Innovation - Ease of Installation - Simple & Effective Pump Operation - Engine Longevity - System Reliability & Reduced Ongoing Maintenance.

Boonal Joint Venture's Customised Dewatering Pump System - Key Components:

• Hydro Titan 100x65-250 Pump with Universal Coupling
• Yanmar 3TNV84TEPP-PE 3-Cylinder Diesel Engine
• Mine Site Specification Compliance achieved

• Custom hot dipped galvanized pump base fitted with bunding to house diesel fuel tank
• Custom in-house design undertaken by Dowdens Project Engineering Department
• Custom in-house fabrication undertaken by Dowdens Pumping Industrial Workshops

Aurizon Holdings Limited have engaged Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment [Mackay & Brisbane Branches] to deliver a Water Treatment Plant (WTP) at their Coppabella Township, located on the Goonyella Rail Corridor (the world's largest metallurgical coal rail system) - 159 kilometres South West of Mackay, QLD.

The township of Coppabella was primarily designed and built to service the junction of two railway lines (one from Goonyella Coal Mine and one from Saraji Coal Mine) and to provide accommodation to the regions coal mine workers in work depots. The town was established in three stages, with the first being completed in 1971, the second in 1977 and the third and final stage in 1984. The town is wholly owned and operated by Aurizon Holdings Limited and contains: stations, residences, single-quarters, work depots, hotel, a shop, swimming pool, football oval, caravan park, school, ambulance, fire brigade and of course the new Dowdens Water Treatment Plant which is capable of producing of up to 900kL of potable water per day.

Dowdens engineers and service crews designed, manufactured, installed and commissioned the Coppabella WTP to treat raw water to Australian Drinking Water Standards. As the Principal Contractor Dowdens were provided a set of feed supply water parameters coming into the WTP, and water quality requirements for the delivery of the town's drinking water. From these basics the $2.5 million project came to fruition. The Dowdens WTP replaced the existing water softening plant (located adjacent to the new WTP), whilst future-proofing the growth of the Coppabella township by increasing the WTP's maximum daily drinking water production capacity up to 900 kL/day.

The new WTP is completely automated and user adjustable via the GE Human Machine Interface (HMI) situated in the purpose built site Control Room / Office, minimising the need for direct operator interaction / intervention on-site. A dedicated remote monitoring / alert messaging system was also provided so that in the event of a critical alarm the EDAC 700 RTU will call the WTP Operators advising them of system alarm status via pre-recorded spoken messages.

Security of the WTP site was significantly improved with the establishment of a controlled compound restricting access to authorised personnel only (pictured below). Dowdens also eliminated the need for repetitive manual handling of typical WTP chemical consumables on-site (Salt, Liquid Chlorine and Soda Ash) via the integration of various bulk storage systems.

Dowdens were successful in the tendering process due to:

• The proximity of Dowdens head office [Mackay] and ongoing presence in the region
• Dowdens vast in-house engineering capabilities and proven competencies
• High level of detail provided in the preliminary engineering proposal
• Proposed Water Treatment Plants cost effectiveness

Dowdens coordinated the design, build and commissioning of the WTP from project inception through to final handover. This included, but was not limited to: preliminary design - detailed design - risk assessments (with client and consulting engineers) - preliminary civil works establishing the site (levelling site) - under boring Peak Downs Hwy for installation of raw water pipeline - installation of all underground services - pouring of slabs - construction of the Ion Exchange (IX) building - installation of process equipment - installation of all interconnecting pipework - electrical installation of control panel and field instrumentation / equipment - commissioning of instruments / equipment - commissioning of PLC program and HMI - successful completion of 'Proof of Performance' testing and all necessary operator training.

The inclusion of a unique Brine generation system was a novel approach that incorporated a salt bulk bag unloader (capable of lifting 1200kg bags - pictured below) and a proprietary piece of equipment from the USA [BRINE ExtremePro]. The IX system is flexible in its design and is capable of producing between 150 - 900 kL/day of potable water with the IX system constantly analysing and compensating for variations of incoming bore water hardness levels.

The existing water softening plant (located adjacent to the new WTP) and raw water supply needed to be retained during the new WTP construction. The old plant was decommissioned over a period of 3 months. Nearing project completion a wet weather event (February 2016) resulted in additional water flows through the WTP site causing some minor displacement / erosion of soil and stone that required a brief plant shutdown to rectify the damage. Dowdens performed this work efficiently and effectively eliminating any risk to the township's drinking water supply.

Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment design philosophy for this project was: Cost Effectiveness - Current Best Practice - Ease of Installation - Simple & Effective Plant Operation - Plant Reliability & Reduced Ongoing Maintenance.

Water Treatment Plants Key Components are listed below:

• Control Panel c/w HMI and Remote Monitoring / Automated Alert Messaging System
• Ion Exchange Process used for Bore Water Softening
• Raw and Treated Water Analyser Sampling Systems
• 2 Off Panel Storage Tanks (250kL & 500kL)
• Raw Water Pump Skid

• Brine Generation / Storage System c/w Overhead Bulk Bag Unloader
• Waste Water Distribution System c/w Tank & Pump Set
• Chlorine Dosing Pump / Storage System
• Soda Ash Pump / Storage System

Racecourse Projects recently engaged Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment's Mackay 'Infield Service Crew' to undertake emergency repairs to a damaged Valley Irrigation Centre Pivot Irrigator at their Sugar Cane Farm located in Marwood, QLD.

This project began, like most emergency repair jobs do with an unexpected call from our customer. Racecourse Projects rang the Dowdens Pumping Agricultural Sales Team to inform them a Cane Haul-Out Truck had struck the first span of their Valley Centre Pivot. The pivot was now hanging precariously and needed to be repaired immediately. Daryn Gray (Dowdens - Industrial Workshop [Engineering Support]) and Brett Hayes (Dowdens - Agricultural Sales) promptly attended the Marwood site and assessed the pivot. Dowdens advised the pivot needed to be supported or it may have collapsed further. Straightaway the Dowdens 'Infield Service Crew' were onsite to elevate and secure the damaged span.

After speaking directly with the manufacturer of the damaged Valley Centre Pivot (Valmont Industries - Australia) Dowdens confirmed with Racecourse Projects there were no suitable spans for that machine currently available anywhere in Australia. This meant repairs needed to be undertaken promptly before the machine potentially collapsed completely - making any further repair work impossible. Dowdens then promptly engaged a local subcontractor to work alongside the Dowdens 'Infield Service Crew' repairing the machine in situ (whilst still suspended in the air). As the repairs had to be effected whilst the machine was still standing, this required coordination between 2 cranes and a telehandler forklift, along with a man box (attached to the all terrain telehandler) for 2 men to carry out the repairs. All the repairs and commissioning of the irrigator were successfully completed within 2 days of the accident!

Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment [Mackay] are the sole authorised Valley Irrigation Master Dealers for the Mackay / Whitsunday region enabling access to the best possible pricing and product support, an unmatched range of spare parts & fast-turnaround repairs for all of our customers irrigators.

Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment's methodology for the Racecourse Projects Centre Pivot Irrigator Repair was: Fast Response Time - Cost Effectiveness - Fast Turnaround Servicing - Ease of Installation - Limiting Product Downtime - Enable Farming to Continue as per normal whilst the Dowdens 'Infield Service Crew' was onsite.

For over 40 years Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment have been selling & servicing irrigation products throughout Central & Northern Queensland - designing each and every system to improve farming efficiencies, reduce downtime and increase the longevity of pumps / irrigators. As a company that has built its foundation on the servicing and development of agricultural pumping systems, Dowdens Pumping and Water Treatment have the experience to engineer a solution to suit any agricultural application.

The entire project was overseen and managed by the Dowdens Pumping & Water Treatment [Mackay] Agricultural Sales Team. The Dowdens Mackay-Whitsunday Agricultural Irrigation Team of Glenn Agnew, Brett Hayes, Jeff Roberts, Kevin Krog, Mike Sanderson, Eileen Mason and Nathan Cross are one of the most experienced Ag sales teams in Australia, with over 125 years of combined irrigation system design and operational experience between them.