Metro Mining’s offshore floating terminal, dubbed Ikamba, has landed on the Skardon River in Queensland with a plan to triple its transhipping capacity.
Ikamba departed Weipa in Queensland on April 25 and has now commenced cargo operations loading bauxite onto a capesize vessel, Jewel, eight nautical miles from shore.
Metro managing director and chief executive officer Simon Wensley said Ikamba is the most significant part of Metro’s expansion project to a seven million wet metric tonne (WMT) capacity, tripling Metro’s potential transhipping throughput.
“It has been over a year since Ikamba was loading bauxite off the West African Coast,” Wensley said.
“After travelling halfway around the world and undergoing a refurbishment in China, it is exciting to see it in operation at Skardon River.
“My thanks to our truly professional team that has contributed to this epic journey. I wish the new Metro crew fair winds and seas and above all, safe operations.”
Ikamba aims to enable the faster loading of vessels, loading of larger vessels up to 220,000 tonnes (t), and due to its size, can operate safely in more difficult weather conditions.
It will work in tandem with the single floating crane barge, TSA Skardon, to optimise ship loading throughput for the rest of the year.
Ikamba is 132m long and 28m wide, with dead weight of 5000t. The system nameplate capacity is 3000t per hour with expected operational throughput of up to 2000wmt per hour.
Subscribe to Australian Mining and receive the latest news on product announcements, industry developments, commodities and more.
