The Ivan Prinsep at sea.

Finishing touches on the 40 t/h DMS plant in the fabricator’s yard in Springs, RSA.

Mrs Prinsep renaming the Ivan Prinsep at the ceremony on 15 January 1999.

BATEMAN DMS installed on ODM vessel

BATEMAN has designed, manufactured and installed a 40 t/h dense medium separation (DMS) plant on the Ivan Prinsep, Ocean Diamond Mining (ODM) of Cape Town’s newly procured vessel, previously named the Delta Pride. Renamed after ODM’s chairman, it will supplement the company’s existing mining vessel, the Namibian Gem. BATEMAN originally supplied the DMS plant aboard the latter in 1995.

The space available for the plant aboard the Ivan Prinsep was long and narrow, demanding a new and innovative design. Two side-by-side modules allow generous access to all equipment with a third module mounted over the top of the first two. The steelwork mounting is specifically designed to allow for the pitch and roll of the vessel and is painted to stringent marine specifications. All piping is made of high density polyethylene (HDPE) with galvanised couplings.

ODM first approached BATEMAN in July 1998 with an enquiry for the new plant. The whole plant was designed and manufactured in a period of 18 weeks and completely assembled and water tested in Johannesburg. The modules were then disassembled and loaded onto flatbed trailers for transport by road to Cape Town harbour and erected on the vessel during the first week of December 1998.

The commissioning was performed with seawater on Thursday 14 January, a day before the renaming ceremony, attended by about 100 dignitaries at the quay behind the Royal Cape Yacht Club. On the following two days, ferro-silicon was introduced into the circuit and the plant was fully commissioned. The Ivan Prinsep is presently successfully mining marine diamonds in Namibian waters.

Please contact Robert Abate, General Manager, Modular Plants, on 0+27-11-899-2238 or email modular@batemanengineering.com

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