Antamina's copper and zinc concentrate pipeline incorporates advanced technologies

摘要

East of Huscaran National Park, in the Peruvian Andes, is the Antamina Mine. A 302-km-long slurry pipeline, commissioned in July 2001, transports concentrates of copper and zinc, as separate batches, from an elevation of 4,200 m to sea level. Antamina's pipeline incorporates many new technologies. High-pressure PD pumps, high-pressure pipeline with RDPE lining, high-headloss adjustable choke stations, durable ceramic chokes, comprehensive computer simulation, computer-based batch tracking, leak detection and operation advisory, and trail-out prediction are among them. This paper addresses primarily the technical challenges in preventing slack flow and over-pressure in the pipeline while batches (copper slurry/water/zinc slurry) of significantly different densities move through the pipeline in mountainous terrain.