CA2950195A1

CA2950195A1 - Process and apparatus for delivery of oil sands ore

Info

Publication number: CA2950195A1
Application number: CA2950195A
Authority: CA
Inventors: William Nicholas Garner; Real Doucet; Randall B. Paine; Gurpreet Singh Bedi; Jiangying Wu; Gardner Joe
Original assignee: Canadian Natural Resources Ltd
Current assignee: Canadian Natural Resources Ltd
Priority date: 2016-12-01
Filing date: 2016-12-01
Publication date: 2018-06-01
Also published as: CA2987181A1

Abstract

A self-propelled moving slurry plant for producing and delivering slurry derived from a pre-milled ore to a base hydrotransport station, said platform comprising: a pump-box; a water tank; at least one pump;
and at least one reeled hose; wherein the plant is movable during a slurrying operation. Also, a self-propelled slurry separation plant, for delivery of dry tails directly to a disposal point and returning the water to an extraction facility.

Description

PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR
DELIVERY OF OIL SANDS ORE
FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to the process and apparatus for the delivery of ore slurry to an oil sands extraction operation and discharge of tailings to a pond, beach or face.
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
The Athabasca region of Alberta, Canada has world scale bitumen deposits, some of which can be produced through surface mining. Mining with Truck and shovel, followed by crushing, screening and hydrotransport are well established technologies. Oil Sands Mining Operations in the Athabasca Region of Canada are very large scale, with very large throughput operations. The present operations are "Truck and Shovel" type mining, which is flexible; however, this flexibility has a cost in people and energy.
In US patent No. 8,016,216, Bjornson et al. lay out the case for mobilizing the crushing and slurrying of oil sands ore, at or near the mine face, as a fundamentally more efficient process than truck and shovel operations. Their proposed system is a "semi-static" slurry connected to an ever more mobile front end being fed from a shovel which digs fast, but move relatively slowly in its plane of operation. Over time, the slurry plant would be moved to always be within the mobile conveyance distance of the shovel.
A surface miner, as described in US patent no. 9,126,776, is a machine that mines in relatively thin lifts and allows for more selective mining of ore. It also provides as an advantageous feature to mill the mined material during the process (depending on a number of factors ¨ depth of cut, cutting drum design, speed and ore). This machine also mobilizes the ore to an onboard conveyor.
However, for oil sands mining, this unit does not compare favorably to a shovel for truck loading efficiency.
Nonetheless, it is a natural, efficient fit for a more mobile slurrying and extraction technology as it provides a continuous feed of milled material. This machine moves much more quickly, within the plane, than a shovel.
In patent application US 2014/0102945, Adeyinka et al speak to the use of a "relocatable pipeline".
No further description of this pipeline is provided, but the use suggests that it is similar to the pipeline used in the Suncor at Face Slurry System: simply a modular hose/pipe system.
An early attempt at a truly mobile (or moving) pipeline system is described in US patent no.
3,941,425. It is a flexible line system mounted on carts that bends and folds out of the way to allow for contraction and other movements. It is designed for and suited for underground coal applications, but the scale, rates and movement of the surface miner type mining would render such a system unsuitable and cost prohibitive.
An improvement upon this is the articulated co-flow line described by Frimpong, Szymanski and Changirwa in the paper "Oil Sands Slurry and Waste Recycling Mechanics in a Flexible Pipeline System".
This type of system with rigid line, articulated with knuckles and hung on mobile bridge system, could be made to work in oil sands and would meet the technical requirements for delivering water and slurry to and from an in-pit slurry facility. Unfortunately, the cost of mobile pipeline bridges is prohibitive and there have been concerns about the knuckle structures in slurry flow.
In US patent no. 6,129,520, Cooper describes a receiving, comminution and slurrying system on a mobile platform. This platform is static in operation and pipelines are externally placed and connected.
With the progression of surface mining, a "truckless" option is found to be desirable for both simplicity and cost effectiveness. In order for the surface miner to be truly effective in oil sands mining, it needs to be coupled with a receiving system that can operate while moving and cost effectively connecting back to more fixed facilities. To reach increased efficiency in oil sands mining, implementing a truly moving pipeline system is required.
In light of the drawbacks with the prior art, the inventors have developed a novel system to process mined ore. According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided the use of a flexible line mounted on at least one reel, on a moving slurry plant and deployed and retrieved to the ground in such a way that the line on the ground, at any time, is constantly static.
Preferably, this is done to match with a particular style of surface miner operation ¨ long linear runs with a three-point end turn.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the machine connects a collection or receiving system for the ore, with a slurrying or other pumping system and the reels of flexible pipe, all on top of a mobile platform.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mobile (including moving during operation) slurry plant comprising:
- a slurrying pump box, open and positioned such that it can directly receive feed from a mobile mining machine such as a surface miner;
- a water tank;

2 - at least one hydrotransport pump;
- a water pump; and - a reeled pipeline deployable from the plant and adapted to be operatively connected to a remote base station; and - a cable that can be deployed behind the machine connecting it to a base station some distance away.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a self-loading moving slurry plant for use in the collection and slurrying of solids comprising:
- loading means to retrieve solids from the ground onto a materials receiver located on said plant;
- a slurrying pump box;
- a water tank;
- at least one hydrotransport pump;
- a water pump; and - a reeled pipeline(s) deployable from the plant and adapted to be operatively connected to a remote base station; and - a cable that can be deployed behind the machine connecting it to a base station some distance away.
The materials receiver can be a scoop with conveyor, a scoop with a vacuum system, or a hydroeducted slurry receiver.
By deploying the pipelines from the mobile machine, the pipeline can remain static at its ground contact while the machine moves and no other bridging or other complex operations or mechanisms are required.
According to a preferred embodiment, the reeling principle described above can be applied to a variety of embodiments selected from the group consisting of: direct ore receipt from the surface miner;
retrieval and hydrotransport of windrowed material; and even receipt or removal of hydrotransportable tails, separation with a dewatering cyclone, or other dewatering technology, and return of the recovered water (which can also have the effect of leaving "stackable" tailings).
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the moving self-loading plant and reeling system can be used for a pneumatic transport of dry ore or tails, which reduces the number of reels by one (no need for a water hose), but this arrangement potentially increases the system complexity.

3 Because of the simplicity of the moving slurry plant's actions and motions, it lends itself to automation and autonomy.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the machine receives milled ore from a surface miner directly into an open topped slurry pump box, accessible from the front, right and left. According to an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the moving slurry plant comprises a windrow retrieval system comprising a conveyor with a loading chute.
According to another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the moving slurry plant comprises a windrow retrieval system comprising a vacuum nozzle/trunk.
According to an alternative preferred embodiment of the present invention, the moving deposition plant comprises a windrow deposition system comprising a dewatering cyclone boom.
According to an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the moving deposition plant comprises a windrow deposition system comprising a dewatering system (such as dewatering screw, scroll centrifuge or combination of screw and cyclone) and a conveyor boom to place the stackable windrow material.
According to a further alternative embodiment of the present invention, the machine comprises a windrow retrieval system (conveyor or vacuum) and two discharge systems: 1) a slurry system for ore and 2) a pneumatic system for interburden waste.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the moving slurry/deposition plant further comprises a slurry pump box, water tank, pair of slurry pumps and a water pump.
According to an aspect of the present invention, the moving slurry plant further comprises a pair of vacuum receivers/slug discharge vessels and compressor.
According to an aspect of the present invention, variability in the machine's movement, caused by acceleration and deceleration, can be disproportional to the rate at which the hose is being deployed or retrieved from the reel. In order to prevent loops of hose and fluctuating hose tensions, a slack management system is proposed in preferred embodiments. The system preferably comprises:
an intermediate spring connection that bridges the hose guide to a suspended support. Slack prevention occurs by virtue of matching the hose tension to the spring, to ensure that the machine and spool speed match. Taken together, the

4 machine will manage the overall amount of hose spooled to match the distance travelled using the described system. This system is shown in Figure 1.
According to an aspect of the present invention, the moving slurry plant further comprises reels for hydrotransport slurry, water and electrical; and - a reel management system including spool deployment and retrieving drives;
- a reel braking mechanisms;
- a hose slack management system;
- a level rewind; and - a deployment ramp.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the moving slurry plant further comprises at least one reel for pneumatic slug transport and electrical; and - a reel management system including spool deployment and receiving drives;
- a reel braking mechanisms;
- a hose slack management system;
- a level rewind; and - a deployment ramp.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is further provided a track mounted platform, a power/hydraulic management, motion autonomy and a control system. The placer, a laterally movable platform attached to the back of the tracked machine and also referred to as deployment ramp, allows the laying down of the slurry hose as well as the water hose and electrical wiring along the path taken by the moving slurry plant in such a way as to ensure the hoses and wiring are stable and not loose or tangled.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention may be more completely understood in consideration of the following description of various embodiments of the invention in connection with the accompanying figures, in which:
Figure 1 is a diagram of the slack management system;
Figure 2 is the unit layout/positioning for the preferred embodiment relative to the surface miner;
Figures 3a and 3b illustrate the travel paths of the (a)surface miner and (b) mobile slurry plant;
Figure 4 is typical process flow sheet for the slurry embodiments of this invention;
Figure 5a/b/c are tope views of the preferred embodiment (a) in model, (b) design drawing with a square slurry pumpbox and (c) with a round slurry pump box;

5 Figures 6a and 6b are (a) side and (b) top views of and embodiment with a windrow retrieval device (scoop and articulated conveyor);
Figure 7 is an example of the travel path during windrow retrieval operation;
Figure 8 is a side view of according to an embodiment of the present invention with a vacuum retrieval and pneumatic discharge;
Figure 9 is a side view of according to an embodiment of the present invention using hydroeduction for windrow retrieval;
Figure 10 is a side view of an embodiment for discharge of tails through a dewatering cyclone suspended on a boom;
Figure 11 is a discharge pattern for stackable tails from a mobile dewatering unit;
Figure 12a/b/c are side views of alternative dry tails deposition units using (a)dewatering screw, (b) dewatering screw and cyclone, and (c) scroll centrifuge each coupled with a boomed conveyor for discharge;
Figures 13a and 13b are an (a) side and (b) top view of the hybrid embodiment of the invention including a scoop and conveyor for windrow retrieval;
Figures 14a and 14b are (a) side and (b) top views of the hybrid embodiment of the invention including a vacuum windrow retrieval system;
Figure 15 is a diagram of the windrow retrieval pattern used by the hybrid systems, utilizing a quality mapped windrow (rather than separate waste and ore windrows);
Figures 16a, 16b and 16c are side, top and front views of the round dual pump box.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
The present invention is directed to a simpler and more flexible system to process mined ore, preferably without the comminution step as the surface miner accomplishes this task. A moving slurry plant as described in several preferred embodiments of the present invention allows the removal of truck and shovel from a surface mining operation and thus greatly diminishes costs and equipment.
The slurrying system is operatively connected to a reeled slurry hose through a rotating connection.
A rotating connection of similar purpose is described in patent US 4,477,107.
There are a number of commercially available solutions for this juncture. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the reel is combined to a drive system for deployment and retrieval of the line as well as a reel loading system to ensure the line does not get tangled. An example of this can be found in US
patent No. 2,595,655 (Hannay).
Preferably, the self-propelled moving slurry plant according to an embodiment of the present invention is also equipped of a similar drive system for the water supply line. As electrification of the moving slurry plant is also desirable, the electrical cable can be co-run with the two lines on the ground. Electrical reeling systems are commercially available. To make the lines long enough for them to allow the relatively free

6 movement of the surface miner, will likely involve the connection of multiple "spools" of flexible pipe. This would normally be achieved through the use of flanges, grooved fittings or other conventional ridged connection systems. However, in a preferred embodiment according to the present invention, this will be done through splicing to maximize the flexibility of the resulting hose and minimize the size of the reel. An example of splicing technology that can be used for rubber lines is disclosed in US patent No. 4,257,630 (Bartell et al).
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a dewatering cyclone, or other dewatering devices, can be mounted onto a moving slurry plant according to an embodiment of the present invention to provide "stackable tailings" deposition from a moving deposition plant. The dewatering cyclone systems adapted for such use are described in commercial brochures such as "First Choice for Hydrocyclones" by Weir Minerals (page 14).
Preferably, the movement pattern that allows a unit according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention to quickly and efficiently deploy and retrieve the pipelines is a "forward-backward-sideways" motion that is repeated. This simplicity of motion lends itself to automation and semi-autonomy (during pit operation, autonomous, between pit operations movement would be either tele-op or locally controlled). This can be achieved through the use of two key technologies: an autonomous/semi-autonomous motion control system, such as the ASI NaVTM system, combined with a sensing technology for material, vehicles and position, such as the InduradTM system. Process equipment control is through conventional control means and preferably, the self-propelled moving slurry plant communicates with the operating station via wireless communication protocols.
Figure 2 is a schematic view of the unit layout and positioning relative to the surface miner, during forward operation. In this "cut-away view", the pump box(es) 35, the pumps 36, the reels 37, control center 38 and transformer 39 can be seen.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a moving slurry plant which trails the surface miner spooling-out pipelines for water and for ore hydrotransport, and electrical cable, as it goes. It moves in a forward ¨ backward ¨ sidestep motion. Preferably, the unit is automated and autonomous to follow the surface miner through a preset group of movement patterns using a target guidance and automated motion change system.

7 Another preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a unit design to follow a surface miner in a decouplcd manner, retrieving up windrows of mined ore for processing and bypassing windrows of waste including, but not limited to interburden and non-spec interburden.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of thc present invention there is provided a unit using a pneumatic slug to drive the material to the base station, thus eliminating the in situ segregation and need for a water pipeline to the moving plant.
According to yet another embodiment of the present invention there is provided a unit using a dry windrow retrieval and a hybrid system to send dry waste and slurried ore back to the base station separately.
This system can be used in conjunction with the "mapped windrow" system for segregation.
According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, the moving deposition plant receives slurry, dewaters and discharges the solids to ground through at least one dewatering cyclone, or other dewatering technology (dewatering screw, scroll centrifuge), and returns the water to the plant.
According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, the moving slurry plant can be split into multiple component trailers.
According to various embodiments of the present invention, the unit can be built on a hovercraft chassis, on tires or on a skid mounted platform rather than tracks.
Figure 3 shows the path of a moving slurry plant according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The proposed path for the motion of the moving slurry plant with respect to the base station is shown in Figure 3b compared to a surface miner movement in Figure 3a. This uses a proposed pipeline length of 750m. The order of the sequential motions is: tracks front/back, move forward to end, move backward to start, tracks left/right, move left, repeat. The proposed path allows the elimination of three point turns for the slurry plant.
According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, the moving slurry plant has a line management crane rather than a ramp (allowing for the surface miner to pass under the lines for looping operation.
The following table relates to Figure 4. It represents a process description of typical streams and flows that would be seen in a mobile slurry machine as per a preferred embodiment.

8 Stream # 1 2 3 4A and B
Gland Stream Ore Water Slurry Water Flow m3/hr 704 725 1418 4 Flow TPH 1500 704 2200 4 Bitumen TPH 150 0 150 0 Mineral TPH 1275 4 1279 0 Water TPH 75 701 772 4 Bitumen wt % 10.0 0.0 6.8 0.0 Mineral wt % 85.0 0.5 58.1 0.5 Water wt % 5.0 99.5 35.1 99.5 Temperature C 5 85 57 85 Pressure kPa 0 0 811 881 Density kg/m3 2132 972 1551 972 Heat Capacity kj/T 1040 4183 2090 4183 Figure 5a is a top view of a model of a slurry plant according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention to highlight the placement of the various reels and pipes used during the operation of a moving slurry plant. Figure 5b and 5c are drawings of the same top view with square and round pump boxes respectively. From the top of the picture working downwards and similarly the top indicating the front of the slurry plant and the bottom indicating the back of the plant, one can see the layout of the pump-box (4), pumps (5) and spools (6a,6b and 6c). Spool (6a) is the one carrying the slurried ore back to the base hydrotransport station (not shown). Spool (6b) contains the water feed hose and can be connected to a water source located proximate the area being mined, typically at the hydrotrasport base station. Spool (6c) contains the electrical wires and can unwind sufficient wire to be connected to an electrical substation or other connection point, such as the hydrotransport base station, to feed the slurry plant. During motion, all hoses and cables follow the same path.
Figure 6a is a side view of a track-mounted moving slurry plant according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention equipped with a scoop/conveyor (7) to effect the windrow retrieval. The scoop/conveyor (7) displaces mined ore from the ground into the slurry pump-box (8). As shown, there are three spools (9a, 9b and 9c) to account for the tubing (for the water feed and the slurry outlet) and the electrical wiring.

9 Figure 6b is a top view of the slurry plant depicted in Figure 4a showing the articulated scoop/conveyor (7) whose joints (10a and 10b) are clearly visible. Two spools (9a and 9b) are clearly visible on the left side as well as the placer ramp (11).
Figure 7 is a diagram of the windrow retrieval operation (using separate waste and ore windrows).
On the left side can be seen two surface miners, milling and segregating ore into 2 type of windrow, ore and waste. On the left side can be seen to mobile slurry machines retrieving the windrows in the forward and backward (with the scoop/conveyor fully articulated) motion.
Figure 8 is a side view of a slurry plant according to another embodiment. The track-mounted moving slurry plant uses vacuum retrieval and pneumatic discharge. At the front end is found the vacuum nozzle (12) located inside a scoop (13) in order to better retrieve the milled ore. The vacuumed ore is dropped into the slug vessel and then sent from the bottom of the slug vessel (14) through the slug line (15) to a base station. This embodiment is done without the use of a pump-box and any water mixing with the milled ore prior to reaching the base station. As would be understood by the person skilled in the art, the reeled hose can be connected to a base hydrotransport station or any equivalent intermediate station, reservoir, tank or the like which serves as go-between between the moving plant and a milled ore processing station.
Figure 9 is a side view of a slurry plant according to another embodiment. The track-mounted slurry plant is equipped with a water jet (16) which projects water onto the milled ore and into the throat of an eductor. The slurry is subsequently educed through an eductor nozzle (17) into the pump-box. The slurry exits the pump box (18) from the bottom and is pumped to the slurry hose(19) leading the slurry back to the base station (not shown).
Figure 10 is a side view of yet another embodiment, this one for discharging tails slurry through a dewatering cyclone. The Slurry is received through the spooled slurry hose (20) into the slurry pumpbox (21). It is then pumped to the boom suspended hydrocyclone (22) where it is dewatered (23) and the water (24) is returned to the water tank (25). Water is pumped back to the plant through the water hose (26).
Figure 11 is a top view of a land area where two embodiments according to the present invention are effecting the deposition of stackable tailings Pit Top and In Pit after processing through the dewatering cyclones. In this drawing the "EXT" represents the extraction facility.

Figures 12a/b/c are mobile dry tails discharge units, other embodiments of the unit in figure 10. A
unit with a dewatering screw (27), placing dry materials onto a discharge conveyor boom (28) is shown in Figure 12a. A unit with a dewatering screw (29) for coarse slurry (30) and a dewatering cyclone (31) for flocculated fine slurry (32) is shown in Figure 12b. A unit with a scroll centrifuge (33) discharging solids onto a conveyor boom (34) is shown in Figure 12c.
As can be understood by the person skilled in the art, a modification removing the slurrying capabilities of the moving platform, leaves a moving milled ore processing plant, wherein the milled ore can be sent to a base hydrotransport station "dry" via a pneumatic slug transport.
Similarly, the mobile platform can be made to handle waste material rather than mined ore in a dry manner by this system.
In some oil sands geologies, the ore and waste, often referred to as interburden, are intermingled in a fairly granular manner resulting in conventional degradation (separate trucks or mining plans) being prohibitive, so it is desirable to sort and handle the material separately from the face. There are two facets to this task: 1) analysis and segregation, and 2) segregated handling. The analysis can be accomplished by a number of methods including laser induced breakdown spectroscopy, nuclear spectroscopy, isotopic detection or infrared/near infrared analysis which equipment can be incorporated on the surface miner conveyor. As an alternative to slewing the conveyor and leaving two windrows (ore and waste) a single windrow can be produced along with an electronic map of the ore and water locations in the windrow (GPS
tracked). A hybrid mobile slurry system with either a conveyor or vacuum windrow retrieval system can then be used to retrieve the windrow and, based on the analysis data and location, either pneumatically transport the waste of slurry the ore back to the base station for further processing.
Top and side views of the conveyor based hybrid unit, are shown in Figures 13a and 13b. The windrowed material is retrieved with a scoop and articulated conveyor (40), segregated through a segregation chute 41 into either a slurry pump box (42), for ore, or pneumatic slug vessels (43) for waste. The ore slurry, made with water brought in on the water line (46), is pumped (48) through the slurry line (44) back to the hydrotransport base station. Waste is pneumatically transported back to the base station through the pneumatic line (45) pressurized with air from the compressor (49). The platform has a spooled electrical cable (47) also.
Top and side views of the vacuum based hybrid unit are shown in Figure 14a and 14b. The windrowed material is retrieved with a vacuum nozzle and scoop (50) and deposited in one of two slug vessels (51,52), driven by the vacuum pump (53). The material in the vessel is then either sent to the base station (waste) through the pneumatic line (59) or (ore) to the slurry pump box (54) with the compressor (58).

The ore slurry is hydrotransported with water (57) to the hydrotransport base station through the slurry line (56). The platform also has a spooled electrical cable (60).
A diagram of the mining/milling and slurry operation pattern is shown in Figure 15. As the surface miner mines and mills the ore and waste, it is differentially analyzed and a virtual map (using GPS or similar locational system) of the ore and waste location within the windrow is stored.
When the windrow is retrieved, the material it treated as ore or waste based on from where it was retrieved and the strored map.
Figure 16a through 16c are representations of the side, the top and the front of the round, dual pump-box. Slurry pump boxes require a sloped surface, which are typically at least 30 for coarse and abrasive grained slurries. As depicted in Figure 16a, a 45 sloped surface design results in a void of similar size situated below the pump box, for common structural configurations (i.e.
cuboid or cylindrical).
Repurposing this void as a secondary pump box to store liquids such as water, reduces costs as well as the facility footprint.
A person skilled in the art will undoubtedly realize the inherent benefits of combining a surface miner with a plant as described in the present application. This combination, of the surface miner with the moving slurry plant permits a feed at the leading end of the pit and deposition of tailings at the trailing end of the pit with fully mobile ¨ in fact moving during operation, machinery.
It will be appreciated that variations of the above disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, maybe desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Also that various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein maybe subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.

Claims

1. A self-propelled moving slurry plant for producing and delivering slurry derived from a pre-milled ore to a base hydrotransport station, said platform comprising:
- a pump-box adapted to received mined pre-milled ore;
- a water reservoir;
- at least one pump; and - at least one reeled hose connected to said base hydrotransport station;
wherein the at least one pump is operatively connected to the pump-box and the reeled hose and the plant is movable during a slurrying operation.

2. A self-loading moving slurry plant for use in the collection and slurrying of solids comprising:
- loading means to retrieve solids from the ground and place said solids onto a materials receiver disposed on said plant;
- a slurrying pump box;
- optionally, a water reservoir;
- at least one hydrotransport pump;
- a water pump; and - a reeled pipeline deployable from the plant and adapted to be operatively connected to a remote base hydrotransport station for the transport of slurry from the plant to said station.

3. A self-loading and self-propelled moving slurry plant for use in the collection and slurrying of solids comprising:
- loading means to retrieve solids from the ground onto a materials receiver located on said plant;
- a slurrying pump-box;
- a water reservoir;
- at least one hydrotransport pump;
- a water pump; and - a reeled hose is deployable from the moving slurry plant and is adapted to be operatively connected to a remote base hydrotransport station.

4. The slurry plant according to any one of claims 2 to 3, wherein the materials receiver is a conveyor.

5. A self-loading moving slurry plant for use in ore processing mined ore in which the ore is retrieved from the ground with a hydro-eduction system, wherein said plant comprises:
- a pump-box;
- a water tank operatively connected to the pump-box;
- at least one pump operatively connected to the pump-box; and - a reeled hose operatively connected to the at least one pump;
wherein the mined pre-milled ore is transported from the ground to the pump-box, for producing and delivering a slurry derived from a pre-milled ore to a base hydrotransport station.

6. A self-loading moving slurry plant according to claims 2 and 3, further comprising a pneumatic vacuum system adapted to retrieve the mined ore off the ground.

7. A self-loading moving material transport plant for use in the collection of solids comprising:
- loading means to retrieve solids from the ground and place said solids onto a materials receiver disposed on said plant;
- a pneumatic slug system;
- a reeled pipeline deployable from the plant and adapted to be operatively connected to a remote base hydrotransport station for the transport of solids from the plant to said station.

8. The moving slurry plant according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the hose is adapted to be deployed and subsequently retrieved from the ground as the plant moves.

9. The moving slurry plant according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the reeled hose can be wound and unwound while slurry is flowing through it and while the machine is moving.

10. The moving slurry plant according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the moving slurry plant is automated and semi-autonomous in following a surface miner through a pre-determined path.

11. The self-loading moving slurry plant with a dry retrieval system and a hybrid discharge system in which the waste material is discharged using pneumatic transport and the ore is slurried and pumped.

12. The self-loading moving slurry plant according to claim 9, wherein the retrieval system is a scoop and articulated conveyor.

13. The self-loading moving slurry plant according to claim 9, wherein the Retrieval system is a scoop with vacuum retriever.

14. A self-propelled, moving slurry plant for use in depositing stackable tails, connected to an extraction facility or base station comprising:
- A mobile platform - A pump box or pan - At least one pump - At least one reeled hose - A means for separating stackable tails from the incoming slurry

15. A moving slurry plant according to claim 14, further comprising a tailings disposal means adapted to dispose of the tailings in a stackable condition from a boomed hydrocyclone.

16. A moving slurry plant according to claim 14 further comprising a dewatering system selected from the group consisting of: a dewatering screw; a dewatering screw and cyclone;
and a scroll centrifuge;
wherein the moving plant also further comprises a conveyor boom for the disposal of the solids.

17. A moving slurry plant according to any one of claims 1 to 6 and 8 to 16, further comprising a dual pumpbox (a single structural vessel containing a pumpbox in the upper region and a tank in the lower region).

18. A process of mining, milling and slurrying using a plant according to any one of claims 1 to 6 and 8 to 13, in which material is segregated into two windrows, one for ore and one for waste, and each windrow is selectively retrieved and processed.

19. A process of mining, milling and slurrying using a plant according to any one of claims 1 to 6 and 8 to 13, where the treatment of material retrieved from a single windrow is based on a geographically recorded position and analysis of the material that was placed at that location in the windrow.

20. A moving slurry plant according to any one of claims 2 to 13 and 17, further comprising a machine-mounted Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy adapted to effect ore/waste differentiation.