Mining Institute, M. K. Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University (Yakutsk, Russia)

Ovchinnikov N. P., Director, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, Associate Professor, ovchinnlar1986@mail.ru

In the face of the sanctions imposed by the West, diamond mining enterprises in the Russian Federation have initiated a transition to domestically sourced process equipment. Only foreign-made slurry pumps had been previously traditionally used in the processing of diamond-bearing mineral raw materials at the processing plants of JSC Almazy Anabara and a number of processing plants of PJSC ALROSA. Due to the current sanctions policy, domestic slurry pumps have now been gradually put into operation at these diamond mining enterprises and are expected to completely replace the foreign equipment in the foreseeable future. Hydraulic transportation, represented by slurry pumps, is one of the key links in the processing chain for diamond-bearing mineral raw materials, which is why its efficiency a major factor behind the cost of diamond mining. This article assesses the durability of wet end parts in foreign and domestic slurry pumps when pumping diamond-bearing slurries with different physical and mechanical characteristics. The scientific research data obtained will be useful to decision-makers in technical upgrades of processing plants at various diamond mining enterprises in the Russian Federation. It has been established that the service life of a slurry pump impeller drops noticeably with an increase in the average hardness of the mineral raw material pumped from 2.3 to 3.7. It has been shown that impeller durability is essentially independent of the average solid phase particle size in a diamond-bearing slurry represented by soft rocks. It has been noted that, in terms of durability, slurry pumps manufactured by Russian company Metab represent an adequate alternative to similar foreign pumping equipment when handling diamond-bearing slurries.

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