World's longest conveyor belt - photo

The world's longest conveyor belt is a 61-mile long system used to transport phosphate from the mining town of Bou Craa in Western Sahara the port city of Laayoune.

https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...veyor_belt.jpg


Previously:

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...239#post161373
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...298#post157961
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...020#post153188
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...657#post147667
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...132#post161005

How is this accomplished? You can't use traditional drives at the head, the tension would be too high and it would snap the belt. Are they using powered idlers?

Deleted . . . .

I wonder if it might be a conveyor belt WITH a full length cable running beside the conveyor belt to drive intermittent idlers along the way. Cable would probably be cheaper than 122 miles of drive chain and sprockets.

There is a huge abandoned conveyor system in Navajo country. We drove past the end of it earlier this year in Northeast Arizona. For 50 years, it moved coal 17 miles to a point where it was loaded on rail cars to be moved to the power plant in Page, Arizona. The last loads were hauled last year.