USGS releases first study to assess global earthquake risk to mineral supplies
Earthquakes have the potential to substantially affect mining operations, leading to supply chain disruptions that adversely affect the global economy.
GIW Industries, the leader in the design, manufacture and application of heavy duty, centrifugal slurry pumps, announced that an LSA model pump installed at the Noranda Alumina Plant in Gramercy, La., has operated continuously with only routine maintenance for 52 years.
Operating in the dirtiest conditions
Installed at the plant startup in 1959, the LSA pump operates on the plant’s press floor turnback area, handling bauxite mud slurry at a specific gravity of 1.25 and temperature of 125 degrees Fahrenheit. The slurry is fed to the pump from a tank that receives excess mud, caustic liquor and dilution water from the filter press that dewaters mud for disposal. The pump recirculates excess material to a mud settler tank located approximately 200 yards away.
Conley Jones, senior reliability engineer at the Noranda plant, notes that these have been some of the most reliable pumps in the plant.
Read the full news release here.
