Rail Transport

From the Mary River rail loading facility, trains will travel approximately 145 kilometres to port facilities at Steensby Inlet. Delivery of 12.6 million tonnes per year of ore will require, on average, four trains per day, 293 days per year, to travel between the open pit and the port facilities. In addition, the railway system will be used to transfer operating supplies and equipment from Steensby Inlet to the Mary River operations. Steensby Inlet was selected as the preferred location for the port, over Milne Inlet, after a review of socio-economic, environmental and operational considerations. It is anticipated that the existing winter road access from Milne Inlet will be used periodically to mobilize large heavy equipment that is not transportable by rail to the Mary River mining operations.

From the rail off-loading area at the Steensby Inlet port, rail cars will be emptied and the ore transferred by a conventional conveyor system to designated linear stockpiles covering a total area of approximately 20 hectares. As with the system at the open pit, stockpiled ore will be managed by rail mounted stacker/reclaimer systems. Ships will be loaded at an anticipated rate of approximately 12,000 tonnes per hour.