Australia’s Metro Mining Ltd. said this week that they have completed 2021’s contractual agreements with the loading of 3.1 million wet metric tons (WMT) of bauxite ore on Wednesday.
For the year to date Metro Mining has loaded around 300 thousand WMT. The firm now plans to begin shutting down for the wet season and initiating scheduled maintenance to its facilities. Should the weather be conducive to it, Metro anticipates restarting shipments in early April of this year.
Metro Mining Managing Director and CEO Simon Wensley said in a press release that loading through the wet season was a design of the firm.
“Metro made a deliberate decision to continue loading into the wet season to meet our customer commitments and expectations after earlier loading was impacted by weather, COVID-19 and supply chain issues. It also sets us up to do required maintenance on the plant and fleet before we restart in April. I want to pay tribute to the combined Metro and TSA team who have worked safely and in tough conditions to meet our customer commitments and maintaining the reputation that we will do what we say we will do. We have learned a great deal about wet season operation which we will factor into our planning into the coming year.”
Metro Mining is based in Brisbane, and began life when it was spun off from Cape Alumina Ltd. upon its takeover by MetroCoal Ltd in 2014. The firm has exploration rights in over 500 square miles of western Cape York, which is second to only Rio Tinto Alcan.