An expansion project at the Port of Saldanha will see it grow its capacity from the current 60 million tons of iron ore handled per year to 74mt every year. This is a revised growth target from 80 million tons per annum after close consultation with customers. “A volume validation with customers has indicated that there is no need for an 80mt facility in the next ten years,” said Robert van Rooyen, terminal manager at the port. The terminal remains the biggest bulk operation within the Transnet stable in the country. It currently off loads around 8000 tons of iron ore per hour, tipping 200 tons of ore every 90 seconds. A 180 000-ton vessel is turned around in less than 24 hours, says the terminal’s chief operations manager, Leigh Hartnick. “We load the vessels via covered conveyor systems and have capacity of around 10 000 tons per hour,” he told FTW. It is a tightly run operation where even the slightest of mistakes can have massive consequences. “If something goes wrong it goes wrong quickly. There is no room for error,” he says. The terminal was opened in 1976 with one tippler, two ship loaders and two stacker reclaimers handling around 27 million tons of iron ore per annum. That has systematically been upgraded to the current operations that include two tipplers, four stacker reclaimers and two ship loaders. The expansion will see the port operations run with three tipplers, six stacker reclaimers and four shiploaders, said Hartnick. “Even though we will implement a third tippler the port will in the foreseeable future only operate two at any given time in conjunction with the environmental licensing that we have,” he said. “We have no redundancy at present. If we have a major breakdown on a tippler then 50% of our operation is down immediately.” Through the upgrade and expansion the port terminal will also create much-needed capacity within its operations to deal with emergencies, breakdowns and repairs. CAPTION Trains carrying iron ore arrive at the Port of Saldanha.
