WA Esperance Port resumed nickel shipments; Lead exports halted
Source: Hoovers
metalsplace.com
Esperance Port on Western Australia's southern coast continued Tuesday to load nickel but not lead cargoes amid ongoing concerns in the town about high environmental levels of the two metals.
About 600 residents of Esperance attended a public meeting on the issue Monday night, with many saying they never want to see lead shipped through the port again, according to a report on Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
A motion calling for Esperance port's lead shipping license to be permanently revoked was agreed on by a small majority, the report said.
The Esperance Port Authority suspended lead shipments from the Magellan mine on March 14, raising concerns in global markets given relatively tight supplies of the metal, after around 4,000 birds died in the area from lead poisoning.
The ban on loading a cargo of lead concentrate prompted Magellan Metals, a unit of Toronto-listed Ivernia Inc. (IVW.T), to announce late Monday it would seek temporary alternate arrangements for lead shipments from its namesake mine 990 kilometers north of the port.
"The proposed arrangements involve moving the material in ISO-approved enclosed and double-sealed containers which will be transported from the mine site through a port, then onto customers in Asia," Magellan said in a statement.
Lead can be produced and transported safely and responsibly, Magellan's statement said, adding that the company continues to cooperate with the Esperance Port Authority and government agencies so future operations and procedures can be implemented with the confidence of all stakeholders.
Ivernia forecast 2007 output of 85,000 metric tons of lead in concentrate from the Magellan mine, up about 35% on the previous year. A shipment due this month was canceled.
"Lead shipments have been stopped completely," Richard Grant, a spokesman for the port authority told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday by telephone.
"There's a nickel boat being loaded as we speak," he added, but refused to say more about the situation at the port for legal reasons.
Esperance is the largest nickel concentrates exporting port in the southern hemisphere and serves Australia's principal nickel mining region. It shipped 194,136 tons of nickel concentrate in 2006. Total mineral shipments stood at 299,372 tons last year.
Ian Mickel, president of Esperance Shire, or the local government authority, said Tuesday that residents are anxious and angry at the port and monitoring authorities.
"They just feel that this shouldn't have happened to their community," Mickel said in an interview on Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
"We will find out in due course why the monitoring hasn't provided that protection that it was expected to," he said.
Esperance residents want a solution to the problem and to find out how to protect their own health, he said.
"People's health is of prime importance," he said, adding that residents aren't drinking water collected in rainwater tanks from the roofs of houses.
Meanwhile, the state government's Department of Environment reported late Monday that marine sediment samples collected from the seabed directly under the authority's discharge pipe have returned "very high" lead and nickel levels.
Robert Atkins, a spokesman for the department, said the levels, many times Australian guidelines, are of great concern and warrant further sampling and investigation.
The department wants the port authority to explain how such high levels of nickel and lead have entered port waters and how they will ensure that no further lead or nickel enters the water in the future.
Fisheries authority regional manager Phil Shaw advised locals to avoid eating seafood taken from near the ship-loading wharf.
Blood test results from residents show results that aren't raising health concerns, according to a statement issued Friday by the state's Department of Health. |
