AUV Monitors Environment at Underwater Mine

Blue Ocean Monitoring completes PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara contract

Blue Ocean Monitoring (BOM), the provider of real-time ocean data services, has completed a contract in Indonesia working for PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (PTNNT), a subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation, a gold producer with assets or operations on five continents.

BOM’s task was to utilize its Slocum Glider to monitor PTNNT’s Tailings Placement Program at its Batu Hijau copper-gold mine in Sumbawa, Indonesia. The program involved the tailings from the mine being piped (3.2 kilometers) out to sea and deposited off the continental shelf, where the depth reaches in excess of 4,000 meters.

BOM’s autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Slocum Glider was deployed to monitor that the tailings were not being disbursed into the coastal environment of Sumbawa or surface waters. The monitoring program lasted for three weeks.

“The project ran smoothly from start to finish and the data returned by the glider showed the Placement Program is proving to be a success,” said Simon Illingworth, CEO of Blue Ocean Monitoring. “The Glider was able to determine quickly at the outset of the project whether Newmont’s Tailings Placement Program was doing what it had been designed to achieve. This was very important given the cost, magnitude and environmental sensitive nature of the program.”

BOM has a fleet of four gliders, making it the largest commercial Slocum glider operator globally, the company noted. The glider provides persistent near-real time ocean information via a secure proprietary data acquisition and visualization system.

Tonny Bachtiar, PT Newmont’s General Supervisor Environmental Monitoring stated, “The monitoring project, led by Ben Hollings of Blue Ocean Monitoring, in our view was very successful and demonstrates our willingness to introduce new technology to show our commitment to the environment.”

BOM informs it has also recently used its Slocum gliders to complete a deployment for an Australian-based oil company off the Northwest of Australia and is currently negotiating a number of contracts in Australia, Southeast Asia as well as further afield for both oil and gas and environmental applications.