Download Case Study
The Grande Côte Mineral Sands Operation (GCO), is the largest single dredge mineral sands operation in the world. Situated 50kms north of Dakar, the deposit extends a further 100km north along Senegal’s coastline. Over an expected mine life of at least 25 years, GCO will be one of the largest producers of high-grade zircon and ilmenite as well as small amounts of rutile and leucoxene.
The project includes a floating wet concentrator plant (WCP), which is the world’s largest single wet concentrator. Water, which is essential to the processes this plant carries out, is supplied by pipelines which are required to float on the large body of water that surrounds the plant.
Following failure of cheaper alternative products that were installed to achieve this, GOC had to look for a product they could depend on to keep the project operating. We know that the cost of product failure is too high to contemplate, so when we were first approached to find a solution in mid-2014, we knew Multi Float Pipe Floats were the answer.
10 Quick Tips about Mining Hose Floats
To date COERCO has supplied the project with a total of just under 300 x Multi Float Pipe Floats (MTF480) to suit 480mm pipe. To increase product life and reliability, all the pipe floats for this project were foam filled with polyurethane and included stainless steel fastener kits.
The first 144 units were delivered within the specified timeframes and a subsequent order of 144 was placed a year later, demonstrating the trust our product had instilled in our client. Both orders were successfully transported direct to Dakar Port, in a total of eight 40ft containers.
These products are still servicing the mine’s operations strongly, with not a single reported failure. We are proud to have supplied a product and service which can be trusted and depended on by an international project, the largest of its kind!
Comments