The following information can be found at http://www.weirminerals.com

GEHO PUMPS for world's first long distance bauxite concentrate pipeline
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce [CVRD] has awarded Weir Netherlands b.v. a contract for six mainline slurry pumps at the Paragominas Bauxite Project – pipeline system.

Mineraçâo Bauxita Paragominas is developing a bauxite concentrate pipeline from Miltônia Mine in the Paragominas area of northern Brazil to feed the Alunorte plant, at the Barcarena Terminal, in the state of Pará. The mineral ore will be ground and washed to produce ore concentrate, which will be transported via a 244-km pipeline. The Alunorte plant converts the bauxite to alumina, a white powder, which is mainly used by aluminium smelters to produce the metal.

PSI (US based Pipeline Systems Inc.) designed the pipeline system to transport approximately 8 million dry metric tonnes per annum of bauxite using a single pump station located at the Miltônia mine. The pipeline itself will permit the future addition of an intermediate pump station to increase the throughput capacity to 12 dMTA.

Alumina producers must consider alternative forms of transport when mining bauxite reserves farther from the processing plant. The CVRD decision to construct a 24-inch bauxite concentrate pipeline system was made after extensive studies that took into account factors such as alternative transport costs, energy requirements, environmental considerations and maintenance.
The pipeline transportation time is about 35 hours. Laboratory and loop tests revealed that the rheology properties change according to the time sheared because of bauxite particles breaking. It is important to the processing at the refinery that the cake moisture after the filtration plant only is approximately 12% by weight.

The minesite pump station will be equipped with five operating pumps and one stand by. The GEHO model TZPM 2000 pumps supplied by Weir Netherlands are the largest triplex single-action crankshaft-driven piston diaphragm pumps available on the market.  The pump power end has a direct-driven forged steel crankshaft and a cast frame with heavy-duty bearings.  It has an unprecedented reliability at the rod load for the design duty. The margin available in the rating of this power end ensures an AFBMA L-10 bearing life of more than one hundred thousand hours.