Mining Equipment From Outback Australia to Richards Bay, South Africa

Dismantled Sag Mill

From Mt Isa Mine:

Mt Isa Mine is situated in North Queensland. This consignment had many challenges from day one as COVID 19 played a significant factor. This cargo is located in Mt Isa North Queensland, with Australia’s current border controls and ongoing lockdowns. Another factor was the remote location of Mt Isa Mine Site, which we faced with transporters traveling more than 2000kms per trip from site to port and back to the mine site to re-load cargo.

The cargo consisted of a dismantled 32x19ft SAG Mill, which had been sitting in Mt Isa for the last 10 years and was never installed in the mine site.

The packing list consisted of 63 Break Bulk items, 5 x 20ft SOC Containers with a overall weight of 711,000kgs / 1690cbm with the main OOG pieces consisting of:

· 3 x mill shell pieces @ 48T each (8.92 x 6.170 x 2.92m)

· 3 x head sections @ 38T each (10.30 x 5.150 x 1.40m)

The above items proved challenging as they were deemed to only travel under police and pilot escort from Mt Isa to Townsville Port, with restrictions on traveling time. The stretch of road also en route to Townsville Port, which had significant road works, requiring every caution to be taken by our transport provider.

Bullocks engaged Mega Heavy Haulage, in providing all transport arrangements, labour arrangements for loading trailers and containers, and engaging third-party crane contractors – not just to load cargo from an open area – but from inside a warehouse. This required that we engage an engineering company to complete the roof removal to lift and load 1 x main motor @ 50T (4.915 x 2.83 x 2.60m). Not your everyday logistics requirement, but achieved positive results.

Transport arrangements consisted of 10 x overside/abnormal loads and 21 trailers, which travelled as triple road trains from Mt Isa Mine to Townsville AU Port.

Images Credit Steve Sandron & Anthony Paratore

Write Up Anthony Paratore- Edited By Diane Sandron