A good example of today’s ever increasing demands for a
dust-free, no spillage, rapid unloading operation for bulk
material is in the Port of Lüderitz, in Namibia.
In 2006, Cargotec was approached by Anglo Base Metal, on
behalf of its Namzinc subsidiary, to investigate how to solve
the problem of unloading sulphur in a port that was
predominately used by the fishing industry.
It was not possible to install a fixed unloader in the port as
the quay needed to be cleared after each sulphur discharge
operation. “Based on the client’s demands for a high
unloading capacity operation, the size of ships in question, and
the tough requirement for dust-free unloading, the Siwertell
15 000 S was the natural choice,” says Jörgen Ojeda, Project
Manager at Cargotec.
Since its delivery in 2008, the road-mobile Siwertell unit
has been continuously used for unloading prilled sulphur,
which is employed in the mining process for the production
of pure zinc at Namzinc’s Skorpion Zinc facility.
Using a dual loading bellows system for truck loading, and
a 4S (Siwertell Sulphur Safety System) to deal with sulphur’s
explosive and corrosive qualities, the Siwertell unloader has a
rated unloading capacity of 350tph and can discharge a ship
or barge up to 17,000dwt. The unit, including semi-trailer, has
a total weight of 72 tonnes.