Map of slurry pipeline of Essar Steel

VISAKHAPATNAM: Essar Steel, the flagship company of the Rs. 20,000-crore Essar Group, has commissioned its 267 km. pipeline connecting Bailadilla mines and its pelletisation plant here to transport iron ore from the mine head in the form of slurry.

According to a company spokesman, the slurry pipeline is the second in the country after Kudremukh Iron and Steel Limited's 67 km. pipeline. It is also the world's second largest, the first one operating from the Germano Mines of Brazil.

"The slurry pipeline has drastically brought down Essar Steel's ore transportation cost from Rs. 550 per tonne to a mere Rs. 80 per tonne, besides eliminating logistic bottlenecks and ensuring real time inventory management," he told The Hindu.

Tough terrain

The pipeline, which passes through the toughest terrain of the agency areas of Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh States, will convey eight million tonnes of slurry per annum to the Vizag pelletisation plant, which is operating at four million tonnes per annum (mtpa) currently. The capacity of the plant, built with technology from Lurgi GmbH of Germany, will be doubled in a couple of months.

The facility comprises two pumping stations, a valve choking station and two terminals at Bailadilla and Visakhapatnam. The pumping of the slurry is monitored by the state-of the-art supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system, to enable the pipeline to withstand high pumping pressure.

The project had some initial hiccups by way of resistance from environment protection groups which were, however, convinced by the project authorities about its eco-friendliness. It was also explained that the pipeline did not require land acquisition and that it needed only the right of way.

Ore beneficiation

Executed by a consortium of JSC Stroytransgaz and Essar Constructions in 18 months, after obtaining all clearances, the project used the pumps supplied by Geho of the Netherlands.

Elaborating the slurry process, the spokesman said that iron ore from the Kirandul mines of National Mineral Development Corporation would be fed into the nearby 8 mtpa capacity ore beneficiation plant, which would enhance the quality of the ore fines by eliminating impurities and increasing the Fe (iron) content by over four percentage points to 68, thus making it suitable for pelletisation. The beneficiated ore is suitable for producing direct reduction (DR) grade pellets, which contribute to improve the yield while making steel. The ore beneficiation technology had been provided by SALA (Metro Minerals) of Sweden.

The pellets manufactured in Visakhapatnam are mostly for in-house consumption. They are being transported by the sea route to the three mtpa capacity Essar Steel Plant on the west coast at Hazira, which is operating now at 4.6 mtpa, making flat products. Essar Steel is also putting up a 25 MW captive thermal power plant in the pelletisation complex. The required low-sulphur coal will be imported from Indonesia, where the group has some presence.

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