Bucket Chain Gold Diamond Dredger in Africa

Bucket Chain Gold Diamond Dredger in Africa

1.The key part for the diamond dredger is pulsating jigger. The deal capacity decide the quantity of jigger. We learn the jigger’s technology from one engineer of South Africa. Now the diamond dredger is widely used in Africa.

2.The dredger is composed of several gravity concentrators.The concentration ratio could reach as high as 1:1000,and the recovery efficiency about 90% after series of separating.

3.A Bucket Chain Gold & Diamond Dredger is a large-scale, mechanized floating excavation vessel designed for the continuous mining of alluvial deposits in riverbeds, lakes, or offshore environments. Its primary function is to recover valuable heavy minerals, most notably gold and diamonds, from submerged gravels, sands, and clays. This industrial workhorse is central to large placer mining operations where mineral-rich sediments are covered by significant overburden or water.

The Dredge Vessel: A pontoon-based floating platform that houses the operating machinery, crew quarters, processing plant, and waste disposal systems. It is often self-propelled or moved by winches and anchors.

The Bucket Ladder: The defining feature. It consists of an endless chain of robust, open-topped steel buckets mounted on a heavy-duty steel ladder. This ladder is lowered from the front of the dredge at an angle, reaching depths of up to 50 meters or more below the water surface. 

 The Digging Cycle: As the chain rotates, driven by a powerful upper "gudgeon" wheel, the buckets dig into the submerged bank or floor. Each bucket scoops up sediment (pay dirt), lifts it to the top of the ladder, and then discharges its load into a hopper. 

 Material Handling System: The discharged material is fed into a vigorous screening and washing trommel (rotating screen). Here, high-pressure water jets break down clays and separate coarse rocks and boulders (oversize), which are conveyed to a stacker system for disposal behind the dredge. 

 Gold & Diamond Recovery Circuit: The finer, mineral-bearing slurry passes into the onboard processing plant. This typically involves a series of gravity separation devices such as: Jigs: Pulsating water beds that stratify material by density, concentrating heavy gold and diamonds. 

 Slutces/Sluice Boxes: Lined with riffles or mats to trap heavy particles as slurry flows over them. 

 Centrifugal Concentrators: For fine gold recovery. 

 Grease/Pulsed Oil Tables: Specifically for diamond recovery, leveraging diamonds' natural adhesion to grease. 

 Tailings Disposal: The processed waste material (tailings) is pumped away from the dredge and discharged via a stern stacker, forming characteristic linear spoil piles.

Large alluvial gold fields. It is one of gold mining equipment and can work with gold washing plant.

Coastal and offshore diamond mining .

Mining of other heavy minerals like tin or titanium. Operating in calm waters: rivers, floodplains, artificial ponds, and sheltered marine areas.