Sand Mining News

For 21 years, Fort Prinzenstein's caretaker James Ocloo Akorli has watched the Gulf of Guinea's tempestuous waters eat away at both his livelihood and his heritage.The 18th century Danish citadel, set along Ghana's palm-fringed coastline, was once the last stop for captured Africans before they were forced onto slave ships bound for the Americas.Today, three-quarters of the UNESCO World Heritage site has been swallowed by the sea."There have been mornings after a storm when I have come to find large parts of the fort have just disappeared…

China has launched a crackdown on illegal sand mining operations on the Yangtze river, which have made large parts of central China more vulnerable to drought.Excessive sand mining on the Yangtze, which provides water for a third of the Chinese population, is believed to be responsible for the abnormally low levels of water during the winter drought season in recent years.Sand mining in the river and its connecting lakes and tributaries has also affected shipping routes and made it harder for authorities to control summer floods.According to a notice issued by the water…

Brazilian civil engineering contractor has taken delivery of a new submersible dredge pump for creating an access channel into the sea for a new power plant currently under construction.The Damen DOP150 dredge pump is now in operation, creating the access channel for a critical pipeline for the plant’s cooling system and when completed it will extend 600 meters out into the sea. Over the course of the project the DOP150 is expected to remove around 30,000 cubic meters of material.The Damen DOP150 is being used to extract sand in the surf zone, varying in density from loose to medium fine.

Damen Dredging Equipment has launched a new DOP Dredger Series following the success of the DOP submersible dredge pump, which has proved its versatility across the globe. Damen has built more than 20 DOP dredgers on a one-off basis and at least 380 DOP pumps. The DOP submersible dredge pump has been such a great success over the last 25 years because of its simple concept, which is based on a well-proven dredge pump, directly driven by a hydraulic or electric motor, assembled in a rigid housing with the ability to attach all kinds of specialised suction devices, such as mining heads or cutter units. Moreover, the DOP can easily be connected to excavators, cranes, etc.

Damen Shipyards Group has recently unveiled a Water Injection Dredger (WID), courtesy of a plug & play system aboard a Damen Multi Cat. Such capabilities are typically found only on dedicated platforms, though Damen said it realized that the Multi Cat’s forward propulsion and manuevrability made it a suitable platform for this type of dredging. “Damen invented the Multi Cat as the ideal dredge support vessel – what I like to think of as floating work bench – for Cutter Suction Dredgers (CSD).

Damen Shipyards Group said it has delivered to Murjan Al-Sharq Marine Services a new Multi Cat 1908 fitted  with a Damen DOP Submersible Dredge Pump 250 for added shallow-water dredging capacity. Murjan Al-Sharq Marine Services is based in Saudi Arabia. The company provides marine construction and maintenance, dredging, diving and subsea services. The company’s new vessel, called Murjan 40, has been equipped with a Damen DOP 250. This submersible dredge pump has a 1,250 m3/h capacity and can be deployed for sand mining and maintenance dredging activities.

Damen Dredging Equipment has unveiled its new electrically-driven E-DOP pump, every bit as capable as its hydraulic predecessor first introduced to the dredging industry 25 years ago. The new, electrical DOP pump offers added versatility to be more applicable to even more projects. Damen Product Director Dredging, Olivier Marcus, said, “When Damen developed the DOP pump, over a quarter of a century ago, we did so with much collaboration from dredging contractors. As a result of their input…

The world of dredging is defined by the vast diversity of each assignment that contractors perform on any given day. Fortunately, DSC’s standard lineup of dredge equipment can be modified and customized to meet just about any job that needs doing. It wasn’t too long ago that retired U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Jim Loy told me, “If you’ve seen one port, well, you’ve seen one port.” That now-famous declaration was made in reference to port security in a post-9/11 world, but the quip is as valid now as it was when he said it during his tenure as Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. Similarly, it can also be said that if you’ve seen one dredging operation, well, then you’ve seen one dredging operation.

Marine News looks back at the past 12 months and showcases the best of North America’s workboat design shop and shipyard output. In a year where some stakeholders might not rank 2016 as the best of years in the shipyard or on the waterfront, we might disagree. And, there is plenty to write about. New contracts, deliveries and designs all combine to show that the collective workboat waterfront is moving forward, with technology, the environment and replacement tonnage requirements as the main drivers.

Lind Marine, a Petaluma, Calif. dredging contractor which provides tug and barge services throughout the San Francisco Bay area, has acquired Moose Boats, an aluminum commercial boat building company. Lind Marine currently operates a five-acre shipyard including a 430ft dry-dock and 1,600-ft of linear pier on Mare Island in Vallejo, Calif. Lind Marine’s strategic acquisition of Moose Boats will ensure continuity of vessel production for the well-established patrol boat’s brand as well as complement a vertically integrated business model which Lind Marine has developed over the past century.

A dredging project currently underway by the Dutch contractor Martens and Van Oord in Cadzand, the Netherlands presents quite a challenge: unexploded ordnance (UXO). The village of Cadzand is located in the south west of the Netherlands, on the shores of the North Sea. Its old marina entrance needed to be updated and the harbor was to be deepened. Not a simple job taking into account that conventional Second World War explosives were hidden in the seabed. Martens and Van Oord was up for the job – using Damen’s DOP submersible dredge pump in the process.

The DOP submersible dredge pump is this year celebrating 25 years since it was first introduced to the market. The first of its kind, since its humble beginnings it has evolved into a range of models that over time has been extended and improved, with feedback from customers being applied to make them ever more manoeuvrable and easier to maintain. During the course of the 25 years, hundreds of dredge pumps have been sold all over the world and Damen’s DOP pump remains the leader in its field.

2015 was very successful for Damen’s Cutter Suction Dredger (CSD) range, the builder said. Throughout the year, 12 CSDs were sold and delivered to clients around the world. Most of the deliveries were stock built vessels, a number of which were being built on speculation when an order was placed for them prior to completion. A feature of standardized Damen vessels is that, though built in series, they can be customized with standard options to meet individual client requirements.

Ellicott Dredges, LLC has debuted a new design 20” (500 mm) cutter suction dredge, the Series 2070 Dragon dredge. Aiming to take advantage of modern, up-to-date technology and advanced design techniques, the new dredger unit will eventually replace the Series 1870 Dragon as Ellicott’s standard and in-stock 20” dredge. “This is a truly modern and efficient design without any sacrifice of the versatility, long life and high production rates that owners of the 1870 have come to expect,” said Paul Quinn, Vice President of Sales for Ellicott.

Furuno and Imtech Marine have jointly developed an innovative product for inland waterway shipping. The RHRS 2014 river radar is a revolutionary color radar, unique in the inland shipping market is the mouse control, which makes this radar very user-friendly. It also offers maximum safety thanks to a black box with two SD cards for 24 hours of storage of radar images. The RHRS 2014 replaces the RHRS 2005, which is now being used on more than 4,000 inland waterway ships. The RHRS 2014 is approved by the  Wasser- und Schifffahrtsverwaltung des Bundes for inland waterway shipping in Europe.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation declare a quarterly cash dividend on its common stock. The Board approved a $0.021 per share cash dividend, to be paid on September 14, 2012 to the holders of record of common stock of the Company at the close of business on September 7, 2012. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation is the largest provider of dredging services in the United States and the only U.S. dredging company with significant international operations. The Company is also one of the largest U.S. providers of commercial and industrial demolition services primarily in the Northeast. The Company owns a 50% interest in a marine sand…

In 2008 Ellicott Dredge Enterprises and its product units Ellicott Dredges, Mud Cat, IMS dredges, and Liquid Waste Technology (LWT) sold close to 100 dredges in over 20 countries. The company introduced new dredge products with more underway. The company's new plant in Wisconsin near Minneapolis is in full production. Egypt: Sale via a Bechtel affiliate of two LWT remote-controlled dredges to maintain power plant intake cooling water access channels at two power plants, Nubaria and El Tebbin. The Nubaria sale is itself a follow-on order.