RCRMT to look at deployment of Kiruna Wagon system to handle Macarthur Minerals’ magnetite at Port of Esperance

Posted by Paul Moore on 29th July 2020

Macarthur Minerals Ltd continues its progress towards a route to market for its flagship Moonshine magnetite deposits at Lake Giles, targeting a +65% Fe beneficiated magnetite concentrate, with the engagement of RCR Mining Technologies Pty Ltd (RCRMT) to provide a conceptual engineering and design solution for rail transport and unloading infrastructure of magnetite concentrate at the Port of Esperance.

RCRMT has been engaged to examine the potential to use cutting-edge rail unloading technology that has been successfully used in Scandinavian magnetite operations for several years. The engineering concept will employ a ‘Helix Dumper’ unloading system and Helix Dumper wagons owned and developed by Kiruna Wagon in Sweden. The Kiruna Wagon system has been successfully utilised in transporting magnetite concentrate from northern Sweden to the Port of Narvik in Norway.

The system was developed specifically for magnetite concentrates to provide efficient discharge of sticky product at rates up to 25,000 t per hour, and provides the potential to optimiseproductivity with several advantages over conventional rotary car dumpers, such as:

  • Lightweight wagons, increasing gross payload;
  • High-capacity continuous discharge, reducing operating costs;
  • The potential for lower capital cost;
  • The potential for lower operating cost with unloading powered only by the locomotive’s forward motion;
  • Wagon body shape optimised for wet concentrates

Macarthur is currently working with Southern Ports Authority on the potential to develop this system at the Port of Esperance, in addition to negotiating access to develop a storage shed for its magnetite concentrate. If constructed, the system will be capable of handling tonnages well in excess of Macarthur’s immediate requirements for stage 1 of its Lake Giles Iron Project, providing the potential for increased trade through Esperance, subject to capacity elsewhere within the Port.

Macarthur intends to work collaboratively with the Port to ensure that the footprint of the system and associated conveyor infrastructure (which would feed directly into the storage shed) can work in with existing operations at the Port and without adversely affecting other users.