Bureau: Raadgevend Ingenieursbureau Lievense B.V.

Designing a transport system for bauxite

An exploration of how bauxite from future mines in the west of Suriname can be transported efficiently by rail and over water.

Suriname is known worldwide for its bauxite, the raw material for aluminium. The extraction and processing of bauxite was set up well before 1940, mainly in the east of the country. Now that resources in the east are becoming exhausted, the mining companies BHP Billiton and Suralco decided to analyse the exploitation of new raw-material stocks in the Bakhuys Mountains in West Suriname.

The bauxite being won there has to be transported to the refinery in Paranam, about 500 kilometres eastward. This requires a multiple transport system: a railway of 80 kilometres, loading and unloading terminals, around 300 kilometres waterway in the Courantyne River and another waterway of about 70 kilometres to be dredged in the Suriname River.

Lievense Consulting Engineers performed feasibility studies as well as the design and engineering for various elements of this elaborate project. It entails, amongst other things, the repair of a forty year old railway (that has never been used), the design of a loading and unloading terminal, plus the design of a fairway in the Courantyne and Suriname River. 

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 This project is part of 'Dutch engineers: creating all over the world'

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