Schwing Bioset upgrades Coeur’s Alaskan Mine with Continuous Flow technology
Written by Chuck Wanstrom
Kensington Mine is located roughly 45 miles northwest of Juneau, Alaska, and is accessible only by maritime or air travel. Coeur Mining became 100% owner in 1995 and commenced commercial operations in 2010. Utilizing paste backfill as one of the primary tailings management techniques, the site partnered with Schwing Bioset in 2010 to supply two KSP 140 pumps with 400hp power packs to transfer paste to the stopes in the mine.
These KSP 140 pumps have served the site well for the past 15 years, set up in a daisy-chain arrangement to pump paste to the furthest extents of the mine. Now, new levels will be mined in the opposite direction of the paste plant, requiring greater pressures than the main pump located at the paste plant can generate.
Coeur gave careful consideration to determine the best approach to bring these new areas of mining activity within the available pumping envelope. Options included re-routing the delivery pipeline to shorten the distance, modifying the existing primary pump and power pack at the paste plant, to all new equipment. The plant ultimately decided on a new booster pump arrangement in the new direction. The pump selected as the booster was another KSP 140; however, this model was equipped with the latest Continuous Flow technology developed by Schwing Bioset.
The KSP 140CF features Schwing Bioset’s proprietary Continuous Flow (CF) hydraulic system that not only removes unwanted pressure transients from the pipeline, but also offers Coeur a suite of patented self-diagnostics never before available in piston pump technology. The diagnostics are able to identify the health of the wear parts, efficiency of the hydraulic pumps, as well as identify internal hydraulic leaks/losses.
Couple this diagnostic capability with the buttery smooth pipeline pressures the Continuous Flow hydraulic system provides, and mine operators now have a powerful new tool to better coordinate maintenance activities and deliver paste to their stopes, increasing uptime and overall production rates.
The new CF system was commissioned in April 2025 and will serve the Coeur site well for many years to come.
With another CF pump currently in production for a site in the western United States slated for delivery in the Fall of 2025, stay tuned for another blog on these pages for yet another Client making the switch to Continuous Flow hydraulics and reaping the benefits this system affords. Everyone at Schwing Bioset is excited to see how transformative this technology has become in the industry and the benefits Coeur and other clients are gaining from it.
To learn more about our Continuous Flow paste pumps, visit our website here, or feel free to contact Chuck Wanstrom. Follow us on Facebook & LinkedIn to keep up with the latest from Schwing Bioset.
