Case Study – Koniambo Nickel Mine Project

New Caledonia (Nouvelle-Calédonie), a French overseas collectivity, is located about 1,200 kilometers east of Australia. We supported the logistics for a world-class industrial complex, which contributes to making New Caledonia one of the world’s largest nickel producers.

The smelter has an annual production capacity of 60,000 tons, and is located near Koné, the county town of New Caledonia’s North Province. Shipments for the project ran between 2008 and 2012, with an investment worth approximately 4.5 billion USD.

deugro moved Approximately 550,000 FRT during this Project

During this project we shipped material and equipment for the mine, the pyrometallurgical nickel foundry, the power plant and other complementary infrastructure, including the deepwater port at Vavouto, the 11-kilometre land-based conveyor and a seawater desalination plant.

Although there was quite some cargo size and volume on one vessel, the main challenge was timing, as the vessel was loaded in China during the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday period.

To ensure that the cargo was swiftly loaded without delay due to CNY, everything was loaded in advance onto barges and all cargo was loaded from the barge to the MV while anchored. This helped to avoid the labor shortage and port shutdown during CNY.

In addition, we had to comply with stringent Marine Warranty Surveyor (MWS) requirements, including detailed engineering calculations and drawings to provide for the barges and ocean vessels.