Bima (dredge)

The Bima (IMO number: 7633789)[1] was a bucket-line dredge. It was built to mine tin in offshore Malaysia and Indonesia. In the late 1980s, it was moved to Nome, Alaska, USA, to mine seafloor placer gold deposits in the Bering Sea off the coast. Being unprofitable at gold mining in Nome, it was sold for scrap in 1990. The barge is the largest barge to operate out of Nome for gold mining, being some 14 storeys tall.[2][3] The Bima was the last commercial-scale dredging operation to operate out of Nome at sea. Prior commercial-scale land-side bucket dredges had all already shutdown by the time Bima started up.[2][4][5]

Specifications
  • Height: 14 storeys [2][6]
  • Displacement: 15,000 ton [6]
  • Length: 565 ft (172 m)[7]

History

Bima was built in Singapore in 1976, by Billiton Mining, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, to mine tin off Malaysia. It was launched in 1979, to dredge tin ore in the seas off Indonesia.[8][6] It was bought by Inspiration Gold Company for US$20 million, and moved to Alaska, to dredge gold in the Bering Sea off of Nome in 1986. As a gold dredge, it operated with a crew of 95, for two shifts of 48.[8] It concluded its gold mining in 1990, and moved to Seattle, Washington, USA, to be auctioned off, as it had been unprofitable in mining gold, though it mined 130,000 oz (3,700 kg) of gold. At the time it was owned by Western Gold Exploration and Mining Co. of Golden, Colorado, USA; a subsidiary of Inspiration Resources Corp. of New York State, USA.[6] It ended up being sold for scrap.[2]

References
  1. "BIMA - Bucket Dredger Pontoon". MarineTraffic.com.
  2. "Bigger & Badder". Bering Sea Gold. Season 10. Episode 11. 16 June 2018. Discovery Channel USA.
  3. "Bima Offshore Dredge". USGS. 10112094.
  4. "Sunken gold draws global miners to Nome". Mining News. 16 (44). Petroleum News. 30 October 2011.
  5. Irven F. Palmer Jr. (October 2004). "Alaska Offshore Gold - Will There Be A Gold Sale Off Nome In The Future?". Alaska Business Monthly.
  6. Jeff Berliner (31 October 1990). "World's largest offshore gold dredge shuts down". UPI.
  7. "Bucket-Ladder Dredges". IP SUBSEA.
  8. Wallace Turner (13 October 1987). "Dredging the Bering Sea for Some of What Glitters". New York Times. p. 27.

See also


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