MINERAL Resources has taken delivery of its fifth transhipper, MinRes Peak at the Port of Ashburton.
The arrival of MinRes Peak on 24 April on the Chinese heavy load carrier Hua Yang Long at Exmouth follows on from transhipper four, MinRes Rosily, which began operating at the Port of Ashburton in March and is scheduled to ramp up Onslow Iron’s capacity to what will be 35 million tonnes per year, with an expected mine life of more than 30 years.
The transhipping operation has been an integral part of a transport solution to unlock Onslow Iron’s stranded iron ore deposits in the West Pilbara.
The first four transhippers are operating at nameplate capacity. Each fully-enclosed MinRes transhipper measures 123 metres by 36 metres and has capacity to transport 20,000 tonnes of iron ore to ocean-going vessels anchored 40km from the Port of Ashburton.
MinRes Peak is scheduled to commence operations from early June and once commissioned, will increase total transhipping capacity to 35Mtpa. The fifth vessel completes the MinRes initial fleet, establishing the operation as the largest and most sophisticated transhipper in Australia.
The vessels are designed with a shallow seven-metre draft when fully loaded, which avoids the need to construct a deep-water port and greatly reduces the project’s environmental footprint.
The project’s haulage, port and transhipping operations are fully enclosed to ensure dust-free transport of iron ore from the Ken’s Bore mine site, located 150 kilometres east of Onslow, to the Port of Ashburton.
