Cross-Country Bauxite Slurry Transportation

Abstract

Over the last four decades, slurry pipelines have proven themselves to be a safe, reliable, and cost effective way to transport large tonnages of minerals over long distances. A variety of minerals have been successfully transported over distances ranging from a few kilometers (km) to 400 km. However, no long-distance bauxite pipelines have been built to date. Bauxite has developed a reputation for being difficult to hydraulically transport. This is about to change with the first long-distance slurry pipeline. The 250-km-long, 10 MT/y capacity pipeline was designed by PSI. Several other pipelines are currently being considered for transportation of bauxite. It will be shown that a properly designed hydrotransport system is an economically viable and reliable alternative for the long-distance transport of bauxite ore, as has been demonstrated for numerous other minerals. The focus of this paper is on how to integrate a pipeline into an existing facility.