Mining Equipment
Melcher Brothers has expertise in both mining, mine consulting and construction of specialized mining equipment. Here are mining equipment examples.
Gold Mining Dredge in Operation (in South America)
Modern gold dredging in South America is done on land as shown in this picture. The dredge unit is a sled containing the pump and diesel engine to drive it. High pressure water is delivered to monitors (turret mounted nozzles) that direct the water-air mixture to the gold bearing material. They liquify it and it is pumped on to the sluice box extractor.
the operator on the dredge controls the suction hose position, pump operation and can manuver the dredge sled with winches. This suction dredge can handle up to 3" rocks and up to 70 cubic yards per hour.
Tailings from this mix of minerals and water are sorted based on weight so denser gold is collected after the lighter material is removed. As the unit is moved forward the land behind is reclaimed.
Melcher Brothers helped design and constructed this dredge for gold mining in South America.
Dredge Pumping Unit
Mining Equipment Examples
Bottle Car
The typical bottle car or torch car as shown here has space for three bottles (two oxygen and one acetylene) along with a built-in toolbox. It is typically used in mines for cutting operations and for easy transport of cutting and welding equipment within the mine. MBI specializes in building and modifying custom mining equipment.
Drilling Rig
This mining support vehicle was assembled by Melcher Brothers assembled onto a tracked utility hauler. MBI specializes in assembling complex mining equipment using base chasis and vehicles.
Mining Support Vehicle
The support vehicle was also assembled by Melcher Brothers using the tracked vehicle chasis and installing a custom drilling support structure build at our plant. The structure includes a remote controlled jib crane and fold down sides.
Side Dump Car
Side Dump Cars are mine ore haulers build by MBI in different sizes. Our cars use heavy steel wheels and Timken roller bearings. The car shown above uses a "camelback" mechanism for auto dumping.
Ballast Car
Ballast Cars built by MBI are bottom dump for adding ballast to trackwork in the mine.
Man Car
Man cars (personnel carriers) transport miners into the mine. We custom build them for different gauge track and in different sizes as needed.
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Knight Sky
The Knight Sky is our most recent heavy railcar. It is a 50 foot open observations car with glass roof. The Knight Sky is now in premium service on the Silverton & Durango Narrow Gauge Railroad.
As a custom job shop, we survive on our product quality and our ability to customize products to fully meet the customer's needs.
At Melcher you can work with the designers to ensure that the end product is just what you need.
Mining is worldwide. Melcher Bros is proud to supply custom mining equipment to various countries as demand warrants. Some past custom equipment orders are for gold mining operations in South America.