Diamond Recovery Barges are designed and built by AST for use on inland water ways to act as floating platforms in support of alluvial diamond recovery operations.
The 37 m2 platform is bolted onto two pontoons each weighing 2.6 tons. The pontoons are fabricated from 5mm steel plate, coated in one layer of marine guard undercoat and two layers of marine cover paint. The complete barge has a total weight of 8.2 tons, and is able to take payloads of up to 15 tons.
Ergonomically shaped pontoon “cones” are the fuel tanks for the barge, each cone capable of holding 1,350 litres of fuel, allowing the barge to operate autonomously for extended periods time.
The barge is powered by two 90 Hp two stroke outboard motors fitted with power propellers. The barge is fitted with a hydraulic assisted steering mechanism.
The barge is designed to be easily transportable. The complete barge can be transported in 1 x 40” high volume container. Access to remote locations is greatly simplified by the modular design.
Final assembly requires no welding, just simply bolting down the beams and slats to join the two pontoons together, the hand rails and canopy support fit into the designated slots on the deck. The canvas roof is then pulled into place and tied down. With the motors bolted on, the plywood floor panels dropped into place, the barge is ready to be pushed onto the waterway.
Gravel pumps with pump capacities ranging from 50m2 up to 700m2 per hour
On board classifiers
HDPE pipe from 100mm ID to 500m ID with custom designed floats allowing for the recovery of the diamondiferous gravels to be delivered directly to the land based diamond recovery plants
Diesel generators ranging in size from 20KVA up to 1 MVA
Diving equipment, Dive compressors
Service Boats
River bottom sonar profiling
Fuel Bowsers
DPP (Diamond Processing Plants)
Auto Sorting (diamond X-ray treatment plants)
Modular housing
Commercial diesel filtration systems , from inline engine water separator/filters, to modular diesel filter plants capable of filtering total on-mine storage depots
Platform: 6.00m x 6.15m. 36.90m2 (397ft2)
Roof: 8.20m x 8.20m. 67.24m2 (724ft2)
Platform to roof clearance: 3.00m
Complete barge fits in 1 x 40” container
Each Pontoon mass : 2.7 tonnes
Complete Barge mass: 8.2 tonnes
Payload: 7 to 12 tonnes
No load: 750 mm
Loaded: 500 mm
Power: 2 x 90 HP Outboards