Ann: FY24 Q3 Quarterly Activity Report, page-53

Mineral Resources’ new transhippers rock up to WA from China for $3b Onslow iron ore mine

Mineral Resources has readied up two brand new vessels that can be loaded with 20,000 tonnes of iron ore without needing to visit a deep water port, in preparation for the start of its next big mine at Onslow.

The MinRes Airlie and MinRes Coolibah arrived at the Port of Ashburton from sea trials in China only weeks ago as the first of a purpose-built fleet expected to be delivered for the Chris Ellison-led miner between now and 2025. Another two more could be added to the pipeline there after as the mine ramps up.
The transhippers are expected to play a crucial role in MinRes’ new $3 billion Onslow Iron operation, where first ore-on-ship is expected imminently.

The new vessels have been built with a shallow draft, or hull depth, of about 7 metres and don’t require a deep water port to be loaded up, unlike most bulk carriers used by WA iron ore miners.
The new fleet has been commissioned as a cost-saver at Onslow, by removing the need to build a new port facility entirely.

MinRes’ also says the haulage, port and transhipper operations will be fully enclosed to keep them ‘dust-free’, as ore is transported from the Ken’s Bore mine site at Onslow to the Port of Ashburton.
The new haulage network is also tipped to open up access to other iron ore deposits in the West Pilbara that would be otherwise uneconomical to mine.

Ore will be transported in a 150km journey from Onslow via autonomous road trains to Ashburton, where it will be loaded on to transhippers able to carry 20,000 tonnes of iron ore each.

The transhipper barge and tug will operate as one vessel to transport iron ore from the port to Capesize bulk carriers anchored 40 kilometres offshore. Each transhipper will be operated by about 40 people.
MinRes executive general manager marine Jeff Weber said the fleet would be the biggest and most sophisticated transhipping operation in Australia.

“There is no other dedicated marine or resource company that has an Australian-flagged fleet as large as MinRes Marine. That’s quite extraordinary considering that two years ago MinRes Marine didn’t even exist,” Mr Weber said.

He expects the third will arrive in the middle of this year, the fourth by the end of the year and the fifth in early 2025.

MinRes managing director Chris Ellison told the Macquarie Australia Conference last week that two more transhippers had been ordered and were expected in May and September of 2026.
Onslow is expected to ship 35 million tonnes of iron ore per annum over a 30-year mine life, but Mr Ellison believes the operation could deliver more as it grows in the coming decade.

“There’s literally billions of tonnes of iron ore stranded down that whole valley, and so it just opens up a whole new network,” he said.

The operation is being developed in a joint venture with China’s Baowu, US company AMCI and South Korea’s POSCO.

MinRes made a final investment decision on Onslow in August 2022.