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Esperance photographs

Port of Esperance, WA.

The Port of Esperance is relatively small containing three main berths and located adjacent to the town of Esperance. This is primarily an export port handling three major products:     Iron ore mined at Koolyanobbing. Ore is carried by train along the Trans-Australian Railway to Kalgoorlie then 400 kilometres along the Kalgoorlie-Esperance standard-gauge train line which has recently been upgraded allowing ore trains to be longer and go faster. ore-trains contain 126 waggons, each carrying 60 tonnes of ore. 18 ore trains a week run from Koolyanobbing to Esperance. Up to a million tonnes of iron-ore can be stored at the port in green-roofed sheds; this stockpile allows large bulk-carrier ships to be loaded quickly. Berth Number 3 is equipped to handle iron ore exclusively with a special loader serving a deepened berth. In 2000/2001 the port exported 2,546,692 tonnes of iron ore.     Nickel concentrate from Kambalda south of Kalgoorlie. This is a fine black powder carried by trains in containers called kibbles mounted on flat-bed trucks. Kibbles have slots on each side so fork-lifts can pick them up and tip out the concentrate. Concentrate is stored in the port area and is loaded into bulk carrier ships at Berth Number 2. Nickel concentrate is a high-value product and consignments are usually relatively small (e.g. 20,000 tonnes). In 2000/2001 the port exported 242,782 tonnes of nickel concentrate.     Grain (barley, canola, lupins, oats, peas and wheat) grown in the Esperance agricultural area. Grain is carried to the port in road trains and stored in silo cells at the port. A number of cells are needed to store the different grains and the different grades of each grain type. Grain is loaded into bulk carrier ships at Berth Number 1 which has an overhead delivery system to deliver grain to ships alongside. In 2000/2001 the port exported 1,119,474 tonnes of grain. These three exports account for 85% of the tonnage through the Port of Esperance in 2000/2001. An additional export is granite quarried near the town and in demand for ornamental purposes because of the pinkish colour. Imports make up a minor part of tonnage through the port:     Petroleum products (273,086 tonnes in 2000/2001) unloaded at Berth Number 2 (the general use berth) and stored at a fuel farm across the Bay before being forwarded to the Goldfields around Kalgoorlie.     Fertiliser products (99,102 tonnes in 2000/2001). Soil in the broad-acre farms in the Esperance region are sandy and must have fertiliser regularly added. This fertiliser is delivered by bulk carrier ships at general purpose Berth Number 2. The Port of Esperance is being equipped to handle more nickel concentrate from a new BHP-Billiton nickel mine being opened near Ravensthorpe. This mine will, at first, produce less processed concentrate than that from Kambalda. Ravensthorpe's output will be carried in shipping containers by road to Esperance and loaded at Berth Number 2 by a container crane about to be erected. The same crane will be used to unload contianers of sulphur needed for processing nickel ore at Ravensthorpe. Eventually, a railway may be built between Esperance and the Raventhorpe nickel mine. Much of the electricity for the town of Esperance is supplied by six gas-turbine driven generators located on reclaimed land in the Port area. The wind-farm near Esperance provides 20 to 25 per cent of the electricity used in Esperance; the generators in the port area provide the rest of the power needed. The Port Authority installed the gas turbine generators after the price of electricity from the unreliable diesel generators previously used increased substantially. The gas-turbines are powered by gas piped from Kambalda in a specially laid pipeline; the gas originates on the North-West shelf.

Information: Port of Esperance Reports.

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