The dredge is at the bottom of the pond with the winches on shore moving it around. “This enables the dredge cage to move around the pond without requiring a vessel of any kind on the surface.” An operator is not needed on-site to control the dredge the In 2016, the 4-inch Mighty Dredge works cleaning tailings ponds at a mine site in Alberta. “The dredge pump moves around underwater with a computer guiding three or more winches from shore or on floating barges on the surface to determine where the dredge cage is positioned and what direction it is moving in,” Leonard said, of the first patent and dredging method. The Mighty Dredge has two patents – (US 8,935,863, received January 20, 2015) for the “Method of Dredging a Pond” and (US 9,027,263, received May 12, 2015) for the “Method of Automated Variable Speed Control of Movement of a Cutter Head of a Dredging Cutter.” Technology growth in artificial intelligence, GPS and sensors has made automation possible for this equipment, Leonard said. The company started with barges, then pumps and now dredges. was established in 2011, focused on the production of the Mighty Dredge, Mighty Pumps and Mighty Barges. The company still performs more traditional dredging work, but Mighty Pumps Corp. started in 2010 to focus on developing innovative pumping and dredging equipment. In 2006, Leonard started Pacific Pump and Power Ltd., based in Hawaii, doing similar work. He began in the dredging industry long before that, first founding Northern Underwater System in 1979, which did industrial marine services, namely dive, pump, barge, dredge equipment and operations. Jeremy Leonard, chief executive officer of Canada Pump and Power, founded the company in 2010. This pump includes an agitator but not the optional water jet ring or auger attachments.

Four winch lines will operate this set up. An 8-inch Mighty Dredge pump and dredge cage on display at a trade show. Since 2017, the Mighty Dredge has been at work on four projects in settling, cooling and tailings ponds, where the dredge can maneuver unmanned on projects 24-hours a day. In 2015, Canada Pump and Power developed two patents for an autonomous dredging system.

Used pond dredges