Infrastructure
Lawn Hill site
Darimah Village at Century Lawn Hill
Prior to mine development in 1997, the Century mine lease was used as grazing land with no major infrastructure in the area.
During mine development key infrastructure, such as the concentrator, buildings, accommodation facilities and sewerage facilities, were built at the site. A 220kV overhead transmission line from the Mica Creek Power Station at Mount Isa was also established to provide electricity to the site.
A new mine access road was built and existing local public roads were upgraded to ensure the safe travel of heavy vehicles supplying goods to the site. For example, about three tankships of fuel arrive at Century’s Lawn Hill site daily to support mining operations.
In addition, telecommunications services in the region were significantly upgraded and an all weather airstrip was constructed at the site to transport Century’s fly-in, fly-out workforce.
Over the years, this infrastructure has been progressively upgraded to support increased production.
Karumba Port
Century’s Karumba Port facility, which includes an 80,000-tonne capacity concentrate storage shed, was built as part of mine development in 1997 and 1998. The facility also includes dewatering and drying equipment and administration and maintenance buildings.
MV Wunma
The MV Wunma was custom-built to transport concentrates from the Century’s Karumba Port to export ships anchored in Gulf of Carpentaria. Export ships are unable to enter the Norman River due to its shallow depth.
Ongoing maintenance is conducted on the MV Wumna to ensure safe and reliable operations. This program includes dry-dock services, which allow crews to carry out essential maintenance to the underside and other parts of the vessel that cannot be accessed while the MV Wunma is on water. Engineers also check all underwater marine components of the vessel during dry-dock, including its propellers, shafts and bearings.
Three dry-dock services have been conducted on the MV Wunma since its commissioning in 1999. The last dry-dock service was undertaken in 2009.
While the MV Wunma is in dry-dock, the Aburri carries out concentrate transfer activities at the port.