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- Aug 4, 2008
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This sounds way kewl but I worry about it leaving a lot of contaminated water behind to be cleaned up or potentially leak.
"The first step will be to fill Sable with water - a huge operation that will take two years, piping in 23m cubic meters from Lake Exeter, 17km away. Then they'll lower the underwater vehicle to the bottom to start work.
The crawler has a drum at the bottom with teeth that allow it to mine 600 tonnes of ore an hour as it circles the bottom of the pit, layer by layer.
"It mines in a systematic pattern, layer by layer of kimberlite." said Moore. "The ore gets pumped up as a slurry to the surface and goes to a de-watering plant. We then stockpile the ore and transport by road train to the process plant."
A New Way to Mine Diamonds - IDEX's Memo
www.idexonline.com
"The first step will be to fill Sable with water - a huge operation that will take two years, piping in 23m cubic meters from Lake Exeter, 17km away. Then they'll lower the underwater vehicle to the bottom to start work.
The crawler has a drum at the bottom with teeth that allow it to mine 600 tonnes of ore an hour as it circles the bottom of the pit, layer by layer.
"It mines in a systematic pattern, layer by layer of kimberlite." said Moore. "The ore gets pumped up as a slurry to the surface and goes to a de-watering plant. We then stockpile the ore and transport by road train to the process plant."
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