Western Areas announced that its Odysseus Project in Western Australia is progressing as planned and to budget, with several key recent milestones achieved including the installation of a Schlumberger submersible pump to accelerate dewatering.
Installation of the Schlumberger submersible pump will add an additional 100 l/s pumping capacity from a depth of 500m below surface. It is currently being installed in one of the existing rising main infrastructure holes. A step change in dewatering will be achieved via the introduction of this pump, water management ponds and high voltage reticulation.
The first phase of the early works schedule was the rehabilitation of the existing water management ponds (WMP 1-5) and the construction of two new evaporation ponds (WMP 8 and 9). These are now complete and being fully utilised. All the power requirements to run the surface infrastructure, dewatering pumps and for commencement of the underground decline rehabilitation are in place utilising the existing power lines and hired gensets.
Cosmos open pit dewatering
Since the start of the early works program, all dewatering activities have been from within the Cosmos open pit. To date over one million cubic metres of water have been pumped into surface water management ponds, reducing the water level by 37m.
Western Areas Managing Director, Dan Lougher, said that the Company is pleased to be on track and on budget with the early capital works construction and post DFS activities at Odysseus.
