
Posted on October 8, 2025
Dredge Robotics’ latest invention could be its best yet.
Dredge Robotics is no stranger to collaborating with Tier 1 mining companies, with operators flocking to the innovator’s inspired liner-safe dredging technology.
Having worked with the likes of BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue, Dredge’s robotic solutions offer exemplary results – removing 100 per cent of accumulated sediment from lined ponds while operations remain online.
And this technology is only just gathering steam, with new products in the pipeline to take a reliable dredging platform to another level.
This includes a new weeding robot, which is offering a critical solution to an age-old problem.
“Removing weeds from lined ponds can be expensive and very disruptive,” Dredge Robotics chief executive officer Antony Old told Australian Mining.
“The task is very challenging and slow for a diver, who can’t guarantee 100 per cent weed removal because stubborn root nodules lying at the bottom of a pond regenerate after the job’s done. This is why we developed a weeding robot.”
With decades of industry experience, Old has first-hand experience of the problems mine workers face – having spent years of his career pulling weeds out of lined ponds himself.
This experience has informed his work ever since, supporting a strong “plan of attack” to deal with a persistent problem – how can weeds be chopped up and pumped out of the lined ponds without damaging the liner?
“We’ve developed five iterations of our weeding robot to ensure it’s fit for purpose,” Old said. “This is first-of-its-kind technology, so we need to be precise in our development to ensure it works and that it suits mining applications.
“Working closely with our mining partners, we’ve gained feedback on the solution along the way. All our clients are really keen to solve this problem, so the launch of this new technology is generating plenty of interest.”
Old said clients play a key role in technology development.
“Our clients will tell us what they’re struggling with, and then we’ll realise additional applications we never knew existed before,” he said. “Suddenly, you’re working with high-value ideas which force you to explore new avenues of development.
“We’re always working on solutions through this lens, which originally inspired the weeding robot.”
The new system not only removes and degrades weeds and other vegetation from lined ponds while protecting the pond’s lining, but Dredge can also remove sediment at both ends of the pH spectrum. This is all done while operations remain online.
This leaves traditional dredging methods in the dust, whereby mining operators are forced to take lined ponds offline to try and manually clean them or in some cases destroy and re-line the asset. This impacts upstream assets and processing plants, and mining operations as a whole.
With every dredging mission, Dredge Robotics is managing a unique set of constraints – needing to prioritise the integrity of the HPDE pond liners above all else. This balancing act informs the company’s research and development (R&D) processes.
“There’s a real dichotomy of needing to use brute force and torque to degrade the material while having to preserve a 2mm HDPE liner,” Old said. “We have an in-house liner-testing facility where set up flat and sloped-wall liners. When we commission a new product, we try to destroy the liner in any way we can to verify the product as liner-safe. The robot does donuts and all kinds of crazy stuff, so that when we send it out, we know it’s been proven to carry out its work safely.”
All of this is supported by clear, integrated workflows, enabling Dredge Robotics to create a culture where ideas can flourish.
“We’re always trying to recruit people who are high performing and have high accountability,” Old said.
“By finding people who are here for the right reasons and are genuinely engaged, we’re building a culture where team members not only feel empowered to be creative and come up with new ideas, but we can have a laugh and have fun as well.”
Old said as Dredge’s technology grows exponentially, so does the company’s personnel.
“We’ve grown from a team of three initially, right up to where we are now with more than 100 staff, and while we’re rapidly growing, we’ve maintained our DNA, and now have a really inspired, interconnected team.
“This helps us deliver projects to the highest standard possible, with repeat work stemming from that.”
As Old explained, Dredge is busy.
“We’ve had robots slated for production for the last two to three years which we haven’t touched, because our team has been swamped with urgent builds,” he said.
“These are nice-to-have robots in support of other systems, which we can’t get to because we’re tackling immediate problems in front of us.”
This demonstrates the acute demand for Dredge’s services in the mining industry, where environmental regulations are tighter than ever before. For a mining operator, dredging lined ponds is no longer discretionary – it’s a necessity.
Old said this lends to a fast-paced work environment.
“It’s a very exciting space to be in, because everything moves quickly and there’s a lot of opportunity to try an idea and then evaluate it, learn from the failures, and then try it again. Our tech team is very engaged,” he said.
“When we started out, no one else globally was doing what we were doing, and now we’ve advanced our technology to the point where we stand alone in the market. Our experiences and learnings over the years have allowed us to really get to the crux of these difficult, complex problems miners are facing, and then solve them.”
Being an early mover isn’t easy, but it brings massive reward.
“It’s expensive building your own utopian version from the outset,” Old said. “And if it fails, it’s a lot to write off.
“But we’ve now gotten the liner safe weeding machine to a point where it’s economically viable and it serves widespread operational needs. And with new use cases coming across my desk every week, we have an exciting future ahead of us.”