To address the mismatch between the rigid flow scheduling mode of slurry pumping stations and the time-of-use electricity pricing mechanism, an optimal scheduling method for slurry pumping stations based on the differentiated creative search algorithm (DCS) was proposed. First, the characteristics of slurry pumping stations and the properties of the conveyed medium were analyzed to identify the key factors influencing transportation costs. Second, with the objective of minimizing pumping station operating costs, an optimal scheduling model for slurry pumping stations was constructed with comprehensive consideration of ore demand and transportation safety constraints. Third, the DCS was applied to solve the established optimal scheduling model, and the optimization results obtained by the proposed method were compared with those obtained by the particle swarm optimization (PSO), genetic algorithm (GA), and Harris hawks optimization (HHO) to verify the effectiveness of the adopted DCS. Finally, by optimizing the flow distribution of each pump under different required ore volumes, an optimized operation guidance scheme was provided for the pumping station. When applied to the Dahongshan slurry pumping station in Yunnan Province, experimental results showed that under three required ore volumes of 9 500 t, 10 000 t, and 10 500 t, compared with the existing operation scheme, the proposed method reduced the daily operating costs of the pumping station by 723.13 yuan, 1 306.28 yuan, and 1 180.37 yuan, respectively, and decreased the unit ore transportation cost by 2.20%, 3.73%, and 3.15%, respectively.