Cape Lambert is a port facility operated by

Rio Tinto Iron Ore Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a glo ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It is located 40 kilometres north of Karratha.Ports
Rio Tinto Iron Ore website, accessed: 8 November 2010 While the names of Cape Lambert and Port Walcott are often used interchangeably, the official name of the port is

Port Walcott Port Walcott, formerly known as Tien Tsin Harbour, is a large open water harbour located on the northwest coast of Western Australia, located near the town of Point Samson. History Before the port was established, the land was inhabited by th ...

and the iron ore loading facility within is referred to as "Cape Lambert wharf". In shipping documents, it is often referred to as Port Walcott.

Overview

Cape Lambert is one of the sea ports for exporting iron ore from Rio Tinto's mining operations in the

. (The other port is Dampier.) Ore is carried to the two ports on the

Hamersley & Robe River railway The Hamersley & Robe River railway, majority-owned by Rio Tinto, and operated by its subsidiary Pilbara Iron, is a private rail network in the Pilbara region of Western Australia for the purpose of carrying iron ore. The network is larger than ...

. Cape Lambert is East of Karratha (59 km), West of

Point Samson Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Points ...

(11 km) and

Port Hedland A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

(220 km) and due North of Wickham (10 km), Roebourne (22 km) and Millstream National Park (108 km).

Point Samson Beach

Linking the facility at Cape Lambert with the small holiday town of

is a long white beach. The flawless white beach stretches for over 1 km and is the perfect vantage point to observe queued

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

bulk tankers waiting to dock,

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...

s nesting in the sand, or

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

s migrating just off the cape. Sunsets at the beach can be dramatically red.

Boat Beach

Boat Beach which is a very popular local swimming and fishing spot situated immediately west of the Port rail and processing facilities, but easiest accessed off Walcott Drive not far from the town of Wickham. Boat Beach offers swimming and fishing and a boat-launching ramp. It is home to the old Port Walcott Yacht Club.

Port

The port of Cape Lambert was opened in 1972 and is operated by

Pilbara Iron Pilbara Iron is a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational Rio Tinto Group, that manages assets for Hamersley Iron Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, and Robe River Iron Associates, an unincorporated joint venture between Rio ...

on behalf of

Rio Tinto Rio Tinto, meaning "red river", may refer to: Businesses * Rio Tinto (corporation), an Anglo-Australian multinational mining and resources corporation ** Rio Tinto Alcan, based in Canada ** Rio Tinto Borax in America *** Rio Tinto Borax Mine, a ...

. Employees at the Cape Lambert facilities live in the nearby town of Wickham. The port has an annual capacity to handle 80 million tonnes of iron ore. In comparison, the port of Dampier can handle 140 million tonnes annually. The former is approximately 40% of Rio Tinto's annual iron ore production from the Pilbara, as of 2009. Individual ships at the port take between 24 and 36 hours to load. The wharf at Cape Lambert is 3 kilometres long, 30 metres high and one of the highest, longest and deepest wharves in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Rio Tinto expanded the port from a capacity of 55 million tonnes annually to 80 million tonnes at a cost of A$952 million. The port is scheduled to undergo a further expansion to be completed by 2012. The new expansion is scheduled to cost A$276 million. The expansion is part of a plan to raise Rio Tinto's annual production from the Pilbara from 220 to 330 million tonnes annually by 2016. To achieve this, the Cape Lambert port capacity will be expanded to handle an additional 100 million tonnes annually. The wharf at Cape Lambert stretches for 2.7 km, built to a minimum of 17.87metres above the water. It is the tallest in

. The wharf holds or shares every Australian bulk handling records. The iron ore cargo loading facility is operated by Robe River Mining Company (owned by the

Rio Tinto Group Rio Tinto Group is an Anglo-Australian Multinational corporation, multinational company that is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). The company was founded in 1873 when of a group of investors purchased a mine ...

). The terminals at Port Walcott (Cape Lambert), East Intercourse Island and Parker Point (at Dampier) are together operated by the Department of Transport. The port itself is an open water

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

and the Cape Lambert wharf is exposed to strong cross currents due up to over 5 metres of

tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

movement. Six RA Star 3200 tugs are used by the facility to assist vessels in berthing and unberthing operations. The terminal consists of * 8 berths * 4 ship loaders * 5 car dumpers * 4 million tonnes of live stockpile capacity This has been expanded in the recent years to a capacity of 80 mtpa

Expansion Projects

In 2010 Rio Tinto announced $US200 million (A$226.4 million) in funding to begin expanding its Cape Lambert port facilities as part of a wider expansion of its Pilbara iron ore operations. The port expansion will support increasing the export capacity of Rio's Pilbara operations to 330 million tonnes a year by 2016. Rio also proposed an additional 1.8 km, four-berth jetty and wharf at Cape Lambert to increase its current annual capacity of 80 million tonnes by a further 100 million tonnes. The expansion will be staged, rising to 225 million tonnes a year by the first quarter of 2011, 230 million tonnes by the second quarter of 2012, and 280 million tonnes by 2014.

Expansion Management

Sinclair Knight Merz Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) was a private Australian company operating across Asia Pacific, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The company had global capability in strategic consulting, engineering and project delivery. Jacobs Engi ...

(SKM), has been appointed as the Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management contractor for the expansion of

’s Cape Lambert port facility, including the delivery of a new greenfields iron ore port facility, Cape Lambert Port B, located alongside the existing Cape Lambert port.

New Jetty & Wharf

John Holland Group The John Holland Group is an infrastructure, building, rail and transport business operating in Australia and New Zealand. Headquartered in Melbourne, it is a subsidiary of China Communications Construction. History The company was founded in ...

was awarded the $276 million deal for construction of the new 920 metre long Jetty and 420m long two-berth Ship-loading Wharf, and related works. Offshore piling started in mid-2011. The project was completed in 2012.

New Tug Harbour

Abigroup Abigroup was an Australian construction company. History Abigroup was established as Graham Evans & Co in 1957 as a civil engineering company within New South Wales, being renamed Abignano in 1961. In 1981 it was listed on the Australian Securiti ...

, in joint venture with indigenous contractor Geraldton Line Haul (GLH), has been awarded a $65 million contract by

for works at Cape Lambert. The contract involves earthworks for the wharf abutment and tug harbour and the partial removal of the existing tug harbour breakwater. The construction of the wharf abutment and breakwater involved clearing, grubbing, topsoil stripping and surface soil stripping; excavate and remove existing materials extension of existing road crossing over the power station cooling water outlet. The construction of the tug boat harbour extension included the removal, temporary storage and reuse of tug boat harbour armour rock and core material and loading, hauling and placing the core material and rock armour.

Quarry Operation

The Abigroup contract included quarry work involving the pioneering of the upper levels of the quarry by drill and blast and recovery of material for use in a crushing and screening operation. Operating quarry benches and daily drill and blast activities have been established to produce raw feed material and armour and the blasted material is sorted, loaded and hauled to either stockpiles or the crushing and screening operation.

References

External links

Beachsafe - Boat (Wickham) Beach

Beachsafe - Point Samson Beach

Rio Tinto Iron Ore website

Sinclair Knight Merz website

John Holland Group website

Place Names Search Results - Cape Lambert

Geoscience Australia Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowl ...

website {{authority control City of Karratha Rio Tinto Iron Ore Ports and harbours of Western Australia