Mining Engineering Notebook – Two Cost-Cutting Applications of Instrumentation

Long pipelines handling suspended solids find wide use throughout the mining industry. In phosphate, iron ore, and clay mining; in hydraulic stripping of overburden; in tailing disposal; and in transferring concentrates between plants pipeline transport may prove cheapest material handling method. One drawback is necessity for providing attendance at booster stations, both for control and for protection of pumping equipment from sudden surges and failures. Thiele Kaolin Co. in Georgia has come up with an installation where instrumentation does this job automatically, efficiently, and economically.