Metro Mining (ASX:MMI) announces its offshore floating terminal (OFT) Ikamba has begun cargo operations loading bauxite onto a capesize vessel.
A key part of Metro’s expansion project to 7-million-tonne annual capacity, Ikamba triples the company’s potential transhipping throughout but also provides additional resilience and upside to the Bauxite Hills Mine operation.
The $208.21 million market capitalisation company says the OFT enables the faster loading of vessels up to Newcastlemax size of 220,000 tonnes and, due to its size, can operate safely in more difficult weather conditions.
Ikamba will work in tandem with the single floating crane barge TSA Skardon to optimise ship loading this year.
CEO and Managing Director Simon Wensley says it has been more than a year since Ikamba was loading bauxite off the West African coast.
“After travelling halfway around the world and undergoing a refurbishment in China, it is exciting to see it in operation at Skardon River.”
Ikamba is 132m long and 28m wide, with a dead weight of 5,000 tonnes. The company notes the system’s nameplate loading capacity is 3,000 tonnes per hour with an expected operational throughput of up to 2,000 wet metric tonnes per hour.
In contrast, the existing floating crane barge TSA Skardon has a nameplate capacity of 1,000 wet metric tonnes per hour.
Metro Mining is an independent bauxite producer and explorer focused on its wholly owned Bauxite Hills Mine that operates on the Weipa bauxite plateau, 95km north of Weipa near the coast on the Skardon River.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Metro Mining
