The measurement and use of the flow properties of highly concentrated solid‐liquid suspensions is a topic of considerable practical interest in a broad spectrum of industries. The yield stress is a rheological property that all highly concentrated suspensions may have in common. In this work four established methods for determining the yield stress are compared with a fifth and new method based on a vane test developed in soil mechanics. It is clearly shown that a single‐point measurement with the vane device is sufficient to determine accurately the yield stress in a region of high concentration where the four conventional methods are extremely tedious or not applicable. Furthermore, the vane method does not rely on any previous shearing of a suspension and hence is applicable for study of the kinetics of thixotropic systems. The work has been motivated by the need to know the yield stress of highly concentrated bauxite residue suspensions in order to establish a waste disposal strategy for the residue which is a waste product in the production of alumina from bauxite.