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Veteran gold miner Tony Beets relies on Miller to keep his mining operations up and running
Tony Beets is a veteran gold miner operating in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Beets is a tough, determined character and he expects a lot from his crew and his equipment. Failure is not an option for Beets.
Beets and his crew had tried working the Yukon mine site several times with modern heavy equipment such as bulldozers, excavators and trucks. Since the ground had been heavily mined in the past, there just wasn’t enough gold there to make the operation profitable. It cost Beets about $1,000 per ounce of gold mined.
Instead of giving up, Beets decided to try an old-school method, gold dredging. With dredging, the crew hoped to find more gold and at a lower cost per ounce, roughly $300 to $400. As such, Beets purchased a 75-year-old gold dredge for $1 million, even though the equipment hasn’t run since the 1980s.
A Major Rebuilding Project
The gold dredge was built in 1938 and restoring it to its original working condition was a massive project for Beets. The crew had to take the old dredge apart piece by piece and then reassemble it at a new site. The months-long project required a lot of welding, cutting and carbon arc gouging which were done with Miller engine welding machines and accessories.
The daunting project was not without some challenges, but it was ultimately successful. The gold dredge is now up and running and it looks just as good as the day it came out of the factory.
A Versatile Welding Solution
While the dredge is operating at its new site, the crew encounters maintenance and repair needs on a daily basis. That’s just part of life when mining with heavy equipment on a demanding 24/7 schedule.
The dredge is floating on water and a two or three-person crew is stationed onboard for 12-hour shifts. Each team member needs to be able to weld and gouge whenever a repair or maintenance need occurs. Having a versatile machine that is easy to use and maintain is critical in this type of operation.
Therefore, Beets installed a Big Blue 800 Duo Air Pak engine welding machine from Miller Electric on the front of the dredge. One machine helps the crew meet their welding, compressed air and power generation needs on the floating structure, hence reducing the clutter onboard the dredge.
The Big Blue 800 Duo Air Pak can deliver 400 amps each to two welders, or 800 amps for one welder. The crew uses both stick welding and Self-Shielded Flux-cored Arc Welding (FCAW-S) so there is no need for storing shielding gas cylinders onboard. The machine also provides up to 27 kilowatts of generator power, which the crew uses to power lights, grinders or a submersible pump. In addition, with the inbuilt Ingersoll Rand rotary screw air compressor, the Big Blue 800 Duo Air Pak allows the crew to run air tools and perform carbon arc gouging.
Choosing the Right Tools for the Job
Given that the first gold dredge has been a success, Beets intends to ramp up the production by adding more dredges to his fleet. A critical part of his success is in choosing the right tools to keep his multiple mining operations up and running with minimal downtime, and Beets trusts that Miller will continue to deliver reliable welding solutions to meet the needs of his operations.