Metso and Ferrostaal win tender to build a rail wagon unloading facility

Following an international tender, Metso and industrial service providers Ferrostaal Industrieanlagen GmbH of Germany have been awarded a joint contract to build a rail wagon dumper facility for iron ore producers Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière (SNIM) in the harbour of Nouadhibou, Mauritania.

A director from SNIM said: ‘SNIM's ambitious strategy is to boost our annual iron ore production capacity up to 40 million tonnes in 2025 through the start-up of a new iron ore plant GUELB II in mid-2014. As a consequence we need more loading capacity and facilities in the harbour of Nouadhibou for loading the iron ore onto ships. Metso and Ferrostaal were natural choices for this project as we have worked with both companies for years with great results.’

Ferrostaal and Metso will deliver the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the new rail wagon dumper. The delivery also includes an automatic positioner to move the loaded wagons into the dumper and an automatic extractor to remove the unloaded wagons. This new system will boost the facilities' throughput capacity up to 6,000 tonnes per hour. The new rail wagon dumper facility will be operational in 2015.

David Hicken, vice-president, Bulk Materials Handling, Global Sales, Mining and Construction, Metso said: ‘Metso are pleased to continue their long relationship with SNIM, having supplied the first rail wagon dumper to SNIM as long ago as 1963. This new Metso rail wagon dumper will significantly increase the unloading capacity at the terminal and will be a prestige reference for us.’

‘This project will help to boost the iron ore export of Mauritania. After already having successfully launched two industrial projects for SNIM, this order expresses the trust in the expertise of Ferrostaal for industrial projects,’ said Kay Hanns Ewaldsen, managing director of Ferrostaal Industrieanlagen GmbH.

SNIM are a Mauritania state-owned company and one of the world's more prominent iron ore producers and exporters. SNIM are currently operating several iron ore processing plants in the Zouerate region.

Ferrostaal Industrieanlagen act as general contractors for the planning and realization of industrial plant solutions in the oil and gas, processing and mechanical sectors. The company assumes project management responsibility from raw material through to end product and provides services ranging from supplying plant components to installing equipment through to constructing turnkey manufacturing and distribution plants.