A 19 km overland conveyor, designed and supplied by TAKRAF India, for the greenfields Utkal Alumina Project is the longest single flight conveyor system to be installed within Indian territory to date.
The contract, from Utkal Alumina International Limited (UAIL), called for an overland conveyor system to transport bauxite through challenging, undulating terrain from the Baphlimali mines to a new 4.5 mtpa alumina plant in Tikri, Raigada, in the Orissa state of India. In its final configuration, the system comprises two single flight conveyors of 14.5 km and 3.6 km in length, respectively. The 2,850 t/h conveyor system has a drop of 250 m and passes through some 45 crossings over its total span of travel from material loading to discharge.
The scope of the project covered design, engineering, procurement and fabrication, through to erection, commissioning, performance guarantee testing and handover. All civil and structural work was included and an intermediate transfer point and unloading station, including silos and buildings, were supplied, complete with electrical and instrumentation systems. Performance guarantee testing was carried out over nearly one week, with the system consistently achieving its present capacity of 1,500 t/h.
The execution of the project drew on the global overland conveying expertise of TAKRAF Group, with the length of the required conveyor system and the challenging topography along the conveyor path calling for multiple, very tight compound horizontal and vertical curves.
Advanced material flowability testing and modelling were used in the design of the transfer chutes at the intermediate transfer point and the plant end junction house to minimize risks such as environmental pollution and spillage, accelerated belt wear and blockages.
In the erection of the conveyor system, attention was placed on accommodating and minimizing disturbance of the population of the various villages through which the conveyor system passes. TAKRAF India also placed particular focus on safety, strictly conforming both to TAKRAF’s global promise of Zero Harm and to the client’s safety protocols.
Gopal Kalyanakrishnan, Managing Director, TAKRAF India, commented: “This challenging project called for state-of-the-art design and engineering expertise, as well as focus on maintaining the highest standards of safety, fabrication and installation. The team must be congratulated on this considerable achievement, which represented another ‘first’ for TAKRAF in India.”
An article regarding this project was recently published by Global Mining Review and can be downloaded from our website here.
For further information regarding TAKRAF’s bulk material handling conveying solutions, please click here; alternatively send an e-mail to: info@takraf.com.