Ellicott Sells Bucketwheel Dredge to Brazilian Gold Mine
Ellicott International sold a bucketwheel dredge to a Brazilian company for gold mining in the Amazon.

Mineracao Trans Amazonica (MTA) placed the B890 "Wheel-Dragon™" dredge in service near the Paru River west of Jari in the vicinity of Monte Dorado, Brazil.

MTA is an affiliate of North Brazilian Mining Corp., Ltd. of Hong Kong and Rio de Janeiro. This installation marked the first application of an Ellicott dual wheel excavator in gold mining.

The dredge was airlifted up the Amazon basin to a jungle site in a Hercules aircraft. MTA had cited the suitability of the portable B890 dredge for flexible freight arrangements as one of the reasons for choosing Ellicott.

Specifications for the B890 dredge include a high torque dual wheel DWE94 excavator (150hp), a Caterpillar 3412 main engine and a 3306 auxiliary engine. The dredge can dig to 26 feet deep and pump through up to 40,000 feet of pipeline using a 14-inch, 665 hp Ellicott pump.

This was the second dredge Ellicott has air shipped to Latin American. The previous case was Occidental Petroleum’s air delivery of a Series 1870 dredge to the Cano Limon oil field in Colombia.

Ellicott’s underwater bucketwheel line ranges from 30 hp through 1500 hp and can service pumping systems from 4 inch through 40 inch. The company’s bucketwheel excavator and its "Wheel-Dragon™" series dredges are particularly successful with the mining industry.