Jan de Nul secures Australian contract
Belgium’ s Jan De Nul Group has been awarded a € 200m contract for work to expand facilities at BHP Billiton’ s Western Australia Iron Ore operations in Port Hedland. The work is part of BHP Billiton’ s Rapid Growth Project 5 (RGP5), designed to increase the capacity of the company’ s iron ore operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, by 50m tons, to 205m tons per annum.
The project is expected to deliver its first production in the second half of the 2011 calendar year. The scope of work for Jan De Nul Group includes dredging for new berth pockets and extensions to the existing departure channel and swinging basin.
The harbour contains two types of material that need to be removed. The first, Potentially Acid Sulphate Soil (PASS), is a naturally occurring sediment, commonly found along the coastline. It will be kept wet and put back into the ocean as sediment, being disposed of offshore.
The second is a material that can be safely disposed of on land, and will therefore be reclaimed ashore. Environmental controls are in place to meet stringent water quality criteria for run-off from the settlement management areas, which will be built in controlled weir boxes. The target date for completion of the work is 2010.
