Vattenfall Europe extracts brown coal from the open pits Nochten/ Reichenwalde, Welzow-Süd and Jänschwalde/Cottbus Nord in Lusatia. The precondition for a safe open-cast mining operation is to keep water away from the deposit. For this purpose drainage pumps are used for pumping surface water.

For pumping the surface water Vattenfall Europe applies, amongst others, 130 drainage pumps from the type Wilo-EMU KS 24D in a special version. 100 thereof are used in open-cast mining. All drainage pumps are repaired and maintained in the own pump workshop and are then temporarily stored for the next use.

Copper is among the first metals that humankind has processed. And 12,000 years after its first use, copper has become more and more valuable. As an extremely conductive metal, it is used in all aspects of the electronic industry – experts speak of the “2nd copper period” today. In the “copper belt” of Zambia, one tenth of the worldwide copper supply lies more than 200 meters underground. When copper ore is mined at this depth, water – in this case, flowing ground and wastewater – poses a great challenge. 280,000 m³ of water must be pumped out every day, continuously, over several hundred meters in elevation. At the same time, it is contaminated to a great degree by aggressive copper sulphates and sulphuric acid.

Mopani Copper Mines, the operator of the biggest copper mine in Zambia, has put its trust in the German engineering talent of Wilo for controlling the water in the Mufulira Mine. Under extremely harsh conditions, the Wilo pumps have not shown any signs of malfunction or leakage. Reliability, from which the operator and the environment equally benefit.