The Challenge
Kilns in an international mining company’s mine and metals smelter at Mount Isa, North Queensland, Australia, need to be relined every five years with bricks from Austria. Kiln and Main Smelter Rebrick Case Study
The project:
- Required a team of engineers and brick layers and a 21-day shutdown
- Was facing significant space shortages and delays in international shipping, increasing the risk of extended downtime
- Any additional downtime would cost the customer tens of millions of dollars in labour penalties and lost production daily
The Solution
Working around international shipping challenges, the team
- Loaded 47 40-foot containers at three brick plants in Austria and Germany.
- Split the shipment to move via a combination of direct and transhipment vessels to Australia.
- Carefully monitored the loading and transhipment and provided daily updates.
On arrival, the shipment was:
- Customs and quarantine cleared
- Fumigated for Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs (BMSB) – required due to the bricks’ origin, the season during which the shipments were timed, and the lack of time at the ports of origin to arrange.
- Carefully handled and unpacked.
Adding to the complexity,
- Each of the 1100 pallets contained a particular size and shape of bricks.
- The arrival of the truckloads in a particular order, at a specific location, and for a set ‘build’ time and date was critical to project completion within the scheduled shutdown.
The Result
The project was completed successfully without incurring extra downtime costs to the customer.