The new mobile hoppers to arrive at Bunbury Port at midnight on Saturday.
THE Bunbury Port is set to reach new heights in sustainability and safe working practices with the arrival of state-of-the-art $2 million mobile hoppers to be used for bulk material handling.
These hoppers, which are the first of their kind at the Port, are designed with environmental consciousness in mind and will be used to discharge a range of imported cargo including Pet Coke, Urea and Ilmenite or HMS.
The Pet Coke and Urea will be used by local mining and fertilizer companies while the HMS, transported from the East coast of Australia, will be put through advanced refineries to increase the grade of the local product outputs.
The introduction of these new hoppers will accommodate the handling of over 300,000 tons of bulk product per annum in an improved environmentally conscious way.
In the past, the former hoppers, built in the 1970’s, posed risks to both the environment and employees, while Qube’s new hoppers feature an industry leading enclosed operator’s cabin and a safety conscious truck engine speed of 65db, when idle.
Qube’s Bunbury facility operations manager Glenn Gibson said the old chutes involved manual operation which created the potential for injury from stiff opening handles and chutes.
“Our new hoppers eliminate this issue, featuring advanced auto raise chutes and baffle plates which keep all dust to a minimum, catching it inside the hopper itself, benefiting both our team and the environment.”
Mr Gibson said the new hoppers, designed and fabricated to Australian Standards, featured remote controlled grabs with sealed leak resistant buckets which would ensure no dust and no spills, improving sustainability while minimising clean up time and increasing berth utilisation capabilities.