As part of the Phosphoric Acid portion of a massive fertilizer production facility at the multi-billion dollar greenfield Minerals Industrial City (now known as Ras Al Khair), TNT was responsible for the design and supply of two parallel complete Super Portable® tailings stacking systems. Each of these 1,425 t/h systems comprises five different types of mobile conveyors with 54” conveyor belts: seven 250’ long Super Portables, a Ditch Duty Portable Conveyor, Horizontal Feed Conveyor, Horizontal Conveyor and Radial Stacker. TNT’s patented Super Portable® technology allows fully independent movement of each piece of mobile conveying equipment on the tailings stacking pad.
The two mobile stacking systems alternate stacking the dry tailings, and they are fed by a network of overland conveyors with a transfer tower. The overland conveying to feed these two mobile systems (6 Overland Conveyors and 2 Mobile Trippers) totals 22,000 feet. Our scope included all mechanical, structural, and electrical distribution and control systems for the mobile and overland conveying equipment outside the phosphoric acid process plant.
Because the phosphoric acid plant is designed to be operational 24 hours a day, continuously generating tailings, any interruptions in the removal of the waste material from the plant would cause acid production stoppages. TNT’s design makes full redundancy available at nearly all times by allowing the acidic phospho-gypsum waste material from the acid plant (filter pressed within the plant to form a conveyable and stackable cake) to be fed to either stacking system.
While one system is operating, the other system runs slowly and remains available to ramp up to full speed very quickly. Material can be redirected and the back-up system can take over stacking operations in the event the operating system is taken down for any reason, including an unscheduled shutdown. This minimizes downtime for the waste handling system, which in turn minimizes downtime for the phosphoric acid plant.
The pad was designed to be expanded over four phases of operation. After the first four years of stacking, TNT supported the facility's Phase II expansion by supplying a 600 meter extension (from 4000’ to 5970’) of the two overland conveyors with mobile trippers that feed the two mobile stacking systems.
