THE PORT of Esperance has shipped its second, much larger iron ore load from Gold Valley, proving its iron-ore circuit can be shared by multiple customers.
The shipment, more than 170,000 tonnes of ore from the port’s newest customer was loaded onto the Pacific Resource before the ship’s departure on Thursday 12 December, two months on from Gold Valley’s first shipment.
Southern Ports Chief Executive Officer Keith Wilks said it was pleasing to send off another Gold Valley shipment from the port.
“The first shipment of a new customer is always exciting, but in a lot of ways the second shipment can be more significant as it demonstrates continued supply, demand and smooth execution,” Mr Wilks said.
“This shipment included an additional 100,000 tonnes more than what was loaded on the first vessel two months ago, and that is a testament to Gold Valley’s supply of iron ore and how we’ve been able to be solutions focused to facilitate trade.”
“Our teams have done a tremendous amount of work to accommodate a second iron-ore customer over the past couple of months,” Mr Wilks said.
“Our Port of Esperance iron-ore circuit was not originally designed to be shared by multiple customers – now that we have shown it can be agile and work this way, it presents new opportunities for how we can work with prospective customers in the future.”
Southern Ports’ commitment to carrying out upgrades at the Port of Esperance is continuing while opportunities to welcome more new customers are being explored.
This includes the $2.8 million improvement to CV26, an important conveyor in the Port of Esperance.
