De Bottlenecking Project – Marine Vessel Coral Sea

De Beers Marine bought the Glomar Coral Sea in 1989 and converted her to become the first Large Diameter Drill (LDD) Mining Vessel in the DBM Fleet.

Mv Coral Sea sailed in February 1991 and commenced mining in April 1991.

In 2017, De Beers Marine replaced the LDD on the MV Coral Sea with an in-house developed ADS drill system and converted her from a sampling vessel to a full-time mining vessel.

The success of the ADS drill system amplified the processing bottlenecks experienced in the existing CS Treatment Plant.

ADP was commissioned by De Beers Marine towards the end of 2017 to perform a de-bottlenecking study on the CS Treatment Plant. This was the birth of the Coral Sea De-bottlenecking (CSDB) Project.

Feasibility Study commenced in early 2018 and was completed by end August 2018.

“Early” detail design started September 2018. As an addition to the original scope the first vessel mounted Coarse XRT Test Plant was added to the flowsheet.

In September 2019, the MV Coral Sea arrived at Cape Town Port and was dry-docked. The new process plant modules were first assembled at the fabrication yard and then dismantled into pre-engineered, transportable sub-modules, to be re-assembled at quayside before being lifted as complete, individual modules onto the vessel.

In Port commissioning was completed in December 2019.