Belgaum Alumina Refinery

In the Alumina refinery plant at Belgaum, part of the red mud (bauxite residue) generated from the plant is sent to cement industries for utilization, and the remaining is stored in red mud ponds. The red mud pond at Belgaum plant is quite large, lined with impervious clay to prevent leakage. The Project Authorities are making a lot of effort in forestation the red mud ponds by planting special types of trees and grass.

The pond was designed for wet ponding. However, with time, it is now being used for dry mud stacking. An embankment is built around the red mud pond. The embankment is quite huge and old; thus, it required slope stabilization. The red mud pond area required monitoring for slope stabilization of the embankment as well as for the groundwater in the vicinity. 

The real-time safety monitoring of the red mud pond, as well as the barrier, involved instrumentation in providing immediate warning for slope stability and groundwater pressures. Encardio Rite was awarded the sub-contract for monitoring works of the project. Scope of works included: 

• Supply and installation of geotechnical instruments as per approved drawings & methodology, specifications for work, and instructions of Hindalco‘s Project Manager 
• Supply and commissioning of wireless (GSM/GPRS) data logger
• Monitoring and reporting in the initial phase
• Real-time database management system

Instrument used included

• In-place Inclinometer for monitoring sub-surface lateral movement/deformation surrounding slope of dyke
• Piezometer for monitoring sub-surface water pressures at different depths, for slope stability evaluation
• Datalogger to collect data from all of the above instruments and transfer to a central server

All the instruments were installed successfully and are providing reliable data at a pre-set frequency. Monitored data is available online through Encardio Rite’s in-house developed DRISHTI, a web-based data management system (as of 2021). The monitored data is available in near real-time to the stakeholders on their laptops and mobile phones.