Transportation of Iron Ore by Slurry

Transportation of solid materials by pipeline is, of course, not a new development. In the 1950's a 108 mile pipeline was constructed from Cadiz, Ohio to Cleveland transporting approximately one million tons per year of coal to a public utility plant. This line was discontinued in the 60's having served its purpose of forcing a reduction in the rail rate. A 72 mile pipeline is in operation transporting 800 tons of gilsonite per day from a mine in northeastern Utah to a refinery in western Colorado. Other applications are, a 14 mile copper concentrates pipeline in Chile and several pipelines of up to 16 miles in length transporting uranium bearing gold tailings in South Africa (1). Other recent additions to this list would be the 273 mile Black Mesa coal pipeline serving the Four Corners generating plant and the 54 mile Savage River, Tasmania iron ore pipeline. Additionally, development of the pelletizing process which transforms relatively low grade iron ore into high iron content pellets for blast furnace burden requires pipeline transportation of fine ground ore in slurry form throughout the process.