ARI (ASX) Arrium Mining Welcomes New Operations General Manager

Originally posted by fitnfam ↑

Why has ARI re-comissioned the outer harbour loading facility??
To load directly pellets or magnetite instead of trucking maybe?
Or to provide a dryer feed for the capes?
However you view this it must be costing dollars unless the plan is to bring capes in real close,or with a view to dredging out the channel at a later date?

Outer Harbour Usage
Arrium Mining is informing the Whyalla community of the need to extend the use of its outer harbour facilities at its Whyalla operations.
As part of ongoing product trials, selected cargo for upcoming cape vessels will continue to be railed, stored and shipped from this facility.
The outer harbour had been put into caretaker mode earlier this year as part of the restructuring of Arrium’s mining operations, but has been recommissioned in recent months specifically for these trials.
All of the previously-utilised environmental controls and systems will be in place and utilised, with Arrium Mining not expecting the trial to impact on the community.
Arrium will provide an update to the community early in the new year on how the trials are proceeding.

The MV ‘FPMC B Nature 380’ was recently loaded with nearly 205,700 wet metric tonnes (wmt) of iron ore for export, exceeding Arrium’s previous record by more than 1000wmt.
Arrium Mining Chief Executive, Matt Reed, said efficiency improvements such as these were vital in a difficult external environment.
“Loading capes to their full capacity provides direct freight savings to the business by moving more tonnes with fewer capes, and also improves transhipping efficiencies, thus reducing our overall cost per tonne,” he said.
“With iron ore prices remaining low, achievements such as this are critical in ensuring our sustainability.”
This cape was also the deepest vessel to have sailed courtesy of new under-keel clearance software, allowing an additional 3,500wmt of iron ore to be loaded.

DYOR+DYODD "Summits happening to spend money in this environment"

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Wonder if the outer harbour trials are related to 3rd party access to the Whyalla port, found this RIT (Resources Infrastructure Taskforce ) PDF which mentions the outer harbour has a 7 Mtpa capacity

http://rit.statedevelopment.sa.gov.au/upload/resource infrastructure taskforce/rit-business-case.pdf

From page 15

Whyalla Port
Up to 18 Mtpa, with an RIT- assessed potential to expand to 30Mtpa Inner Harbour accepts iron ore from the Middleback Ranges via a narrow and standard gauge rail line. Outer Harbour has 7 Mtpa capacity, and is serviced by a narrow gauge rail and a slurry pipeline. The Outer Harbour is in ‘care and maintenance’ until the sector recovers.