Blue Ocean completes Newmont contract

By Ruli Setiawan

Australia-based Blue Ocean Monitoring (BOM), a provider of real-time ocean data services, announced the completion of a contract in Indonesia working for PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (PTNNT), which is a subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation, one of the world's largest gold producers with assets or operations on five continents.

BOM said in a statement Monday that the task was to utilize its Slocum Glider to monitor PTNNT?s Tailings Placement Program at its Batu Hijau copper-gold mine in Sumbawa, Indonesia. The Program involves the tailings from the mine being piped (3.2 km) out to sea and deposited off the Continental Shelf, where the depth reaches in excess of 4,000 meters.

BOM?s Slocum Glider, an autonomous underwater vehicle, was deployed to monitor that the tailings were not being disbursed into the coastal environment of Sumbawa or surface waters. The monitoring program lasted for three weeks, the company said.

BOM has a fleet of four gliders, making it the largest commercial Slocum glider operator globally. The glider provides persistent near-real time ocean information via a secure proprietary data acquisition and visualization system.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak