PERTH (miningweekly.com) - Consulting, engineering and project delivery firm Ausenco is busy incorporating client feedback from a recent symposium in Chile, into an industry response plan to address failures of long-distance slurry pipelines.
The symposium, which was held at the end of October, was attended by representatives from 22 of the estimated 35 global operations making use of long-distance slurry pipelines.
“Some of the key discussions revolved around setting a baseline for the industry and discussing in particular, the issue of pipeline integrity,” said Ausenco VP for pipeline consulting JP Fortin.
“One of the key points here was the lack of any requirement to report or investigate the failures of long distance slurry pipeline, and that there was no mechanism to share and learn from these failures.”
Ausenco presented a collection of 70 slurry pipeline failures, which occurred over the last 50 years, to the representatives at the symposium, pinpointing the areas of operations that were potentially at higher risks, and presenting a process to address those risks.
The company also presented a preview of software which has been in development for the last 14 months, that would assist clients in dealing with slurry pipeline failures.
“We are working to equip clients with some of the tools that they will need going forward. The slurry pipeline industry is maturing and is reaching a different stage, and we are working to support our clients during this new phase,” Fortin said.