Mongolia Coal Mine - Slurry and Coal Slime Transportation with XAH Rubber-Lined Slurry Pumps

A large open-pit coal mine located in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia’s South Gobi Region is one of the largest coal-exporting mines in Mongolia, engaging in coal mining, washing and coal slime disposal operations. The local arid, dusty climate and the characteristics of coal slime slurry have brought great challenges to the mine’s slurry transportation.

The mine’s core challenges were the high viscosity of coal slime slurry and the harsh desert environment: the coal slime slurry has high viscosity (150-200 mPa·s), solid content fluctuating between 50%-60%, and fine coal particles (< 0.03mm) accounting for 75%, which is easy to cause pump clogging; the local Gobi Desert climate is dry and dusty, with annual average temperature of -5℃ to 28℃, large temperature differences, and frequent sandstorms, which easily cause dust to enter the pump unit and damage electrical components and bearings. The conventional slurry pumps previously used by the mine had poor anti-clogging performance and dust-proof effect: frequent clogging led to 6-8 monthly unplanned shutdowns, dust entering the pump body accelerated wear, and flow parts needed replacement every 1.3 months, causing monthly losses of about $80,000.

Combined with the characteristics of coal slime slurry and desert environment, we customized a solution using XAH series rubber-lined slurry pumps[2]: the core equipment adopted XAH-12/10ST rubber-lined slurry pumps, which are specially designed for high-viscosity, easy-clogging slurry transportation, with wide flow channels and strong anti-clogging performance; the inner lining adopted high-quality natural rubber (Shore hardness 65-70), which has good wear resistance and corrosion resistance, and can effectively reduce the adhesion of coal slime[2]; the pump unit was equipped with a full set of dust-proof covers to prevent sand and dust from entering, and the electrical components adopted dust-proof and moisture-proof design to adapt to the desert climate; we also optimized the impeller structure to improve the fluidity of high-viscosity coal slime slurry and reduce energy consumption.

Up to now, our rubber-lined slurry pumps have operated stably for 14 months, achieving remarkable results: the anti-clogging performance has been significantly improved, unplanned shutdowns have been reduced by 88%, flow part service life has been extended to over 13 months, operation efficiency has reached 81%, and the mine’s annual cost savings exceed $880,000. The pumps have perfectly adapted to the high-viscosity coal slime transportation and desert dust environment, ensuring the smooth progress of the mine’s coal washing and coal slime disposal work, and becoming an important guarantee for the mine’s stable export of coal.