The Bima () was a bucket-line dredge. It was built to mine

tin Tin is a chemical element; it has symbol Sn () and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored metal, tin is soft enough to be cut with little force, and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, a bar of tin makes a sound, the ...

in offshore

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. In the late 1980s, it was moved to

Nome, Alaska Nome (; , , also ''Sitŋazuaq'', ''Siqnazuaq'') is a city in the Nome Census Area, Alaska, Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough, Alaska, Unorganized Borough of the US state of Alaska. The city is located on the southern Seward Peninsula c ...

, US, to mine seafloor placer gold deposits in the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( , ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre, p=ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasse ...

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 stories tall. The Bima was the last commercial-scale

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

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.

Specifications

* Height: 14 stories * Displacement: 15,000 ton * Length:

History

Bima was built in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

in 1976, by Billiton Mining, a subsidiary of

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...

, to mine tin off Malaysia. It was launched in 1979, to dredge

tin ore Cassiterite is a tin oxide mineral, SnO2. It is generally opaque, but it is translucent in thin crystals. Its luster and multiple crystal faces produce a desirable gem. Cassiterite was the chief tin ore throughout ancient history and remains t ...

in the seas off Indonesia. 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. 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 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. It ended up being sold for scrap. The BIMA now resides in Juneau, Alaska and operates as a fuel barge for Allen Marine Tours.

Specifications

History

References

See also