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Customer: NZ Steel Mining Ltd (Bluescope NZ Steel) Contract type: Construct Only Location: Taharoa, New Zealand   |
Fast Facts
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Engaged by New Zealand Steel Mining, we relocated and extended a slurry line to their Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) to cater for larger vessels. The project was located in a remote, rugged west coast environment, with subsea pipelaying in 35 m deep seas, and working windows restricted due to weather.
The mine processes iron sand into a concentrate, which is stockpiled and periodically pumped via fresh water slurry to an export ship moored at the SBM 3 km offshore. Replacement of the export vessel with a new, larger capacity vessel required more sea room to manoeuvre into, and away from the SBM. Hence its relocation and the need for the pipeline extension.
Visibility on the sea floor was often poor causing a reduction in productivity. There were also cultural and environmental factors and associated resource consent timing restraints. Additional constraints included the requirement to work around NZSM’s six weekly export ship loading cycle, which could not be disrupted.
As far as practicable, our construction methodologies maximised land preparation and minimised marine works to improve productivity. To resolve this, the pipeline extension was fabricated and assembled on the Port Taranaki Main Wave Break. It was then launched from the breakwater and towed 70 nautical miles to Taharoa where it was installed in one operation. Dive crews and vessels were based in Kawhia, providing safe refuge during inclement seas.
We built the existing SBM in the early 1970s, demonstrating we are still the contractor of choice for complex marine works. Careful programming and contingency planning allowed us to deliver each phase of the works without interruption to the export ship loading schedule. Drawing on our experience, we drove value and quality through the supply chain to ensure all key milestones for project completion were met.
