BOUGAINVILLE'S COPPER SLURRY PIPELINE

At The Bougainville mine in Papua, New Guinea, copper concentrate is being pumped in a slurry for 16 miles at an average rate of 2.000 ton day. The slurry is transported through a pipeline terminating at an elevation some 2,000 ft below the mine at a new seaport facility. The 6 in outside diameter pipeline, in operation since January 1972, is one of two copper slurry pipelines operating in the world today. It is the first long-distance pipeline to be put into service without conducting prior loop tests to predict pressure drops and other hydraulic characteristics, and was designed by Bechtel, Inc. During the design phase, all pipeline evaluations were conducted on bench-scale, laboratory facilities, using 5 gal samples of concentrate slurry obtained from pilot copper concentrator tests. It is claimed that the success of these laboratory bench-scale test procedures shows the feasibility of relying solely on small-scale laboratory tests, rather than waiting to conduct experimental programmes only after the pipeline has been in operation. The balance of the article is primarily devoted to a description of the plunger pumps used with a brief description of the conveyors, crushing, flotation, concentration, fittening and drying process employed.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/03086631
• Corporate Authors:

  Mining Journal Limited

  15 Wilson Street
  London EC2M 2TR,   England 
• Publication Date: 1973-4

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 292
• Serial:
  • Mining Magazine
  • Volume: 128
  • Issue Number: 4
  • Publisher: Mining Journal Limited
  • ISSN: 0308-6631

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Materials management; Pipeline pumping stations; Pipelines; Plans (Drawings); Slurry
• Old TRIS Terms: Pipeline description and plans; Slurry handling techniques
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Marine Transportation; Pipelines; Terminals and Facilities;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00056274
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Mining Magazine
• Report/Paper Numbers: Preprint
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 24 1974 12:00AM