Fresh trucking hell for Chris Ellison-led miner
Embattled Mineral Resources reports latest truck accident to mining safety authorities.
Mineral Resources has suffered another accident involving the jumbo road trains crucial to the embattled company’s iron ore mining operations in WA.
The latest mishap came just days after MinRes chief financial officer Mark Wilson told analysts the response to a series of accidents involving the trucks had been “intense” and it was in a “good space”.
The latest incident happened on Saturday night and is the first since November. All of the accidents have involved triple-trailer road trains each capable of carrying 330 tonnes of iron ore along a 150 kilometre-long private haul road built by MinRes to connect mining operations to port facilities at Onslow.
The accident and four previous rollovers involving the jumbo road trains have been reported to WA’s Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety.
The safety issues come with MinRes carting only a fraction of the volumes the haul road is intended to handle as the company ramps up its Onslow Iron operations.
The latest mishap involved a fully-loaded road train and happened near a bridge on the North West Coastal Highway that passes over the MinRes haul road.
MinRes said it had paused haulage operations as a safety precaution as a dust storm hit the area on Saturday night. The road train pulled over to the shoulder of the haul road but toppled over when it went to resume the journey to Onslow.
“There were no injuries and the trailers have since been recovered,” a MinRes spokesman said.
One experienced road train driver, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the description of how the incident happened raised red flags and noted the accident had occurred at an s-bend in the haul road.
MinRes built Onslow Iron at a cost of about $3bn alongside partners that include China’s Baowu Group. Perth-headquartered MinRes earmarked almost $800m for more work on Onslow Iron in 2024-25, including finishing the haul road which is intended to handle the jumbo road trains travelling at a rate of one every few minutes in order to get to an export target of 35 million tonnes of iron ore a year.
MinRes expects Onslow Iron to produce between 10.5 million tonnes and 11.7 million tonnes in 2024-25.
MinRes only finished building the haul road last year and sold a 49 per cent stake in the road to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners for $1.3bn in a deal which was crucial to strengthening its balance sheet.
The company, under investigation by the Australian Investment and Securities Commission over scandals involving managing director Chris Ellison and its disclosure standards, was forced to repair sections of the road in January after heavy rain.
The flood damage was caused by Cyclone Sean, which also caused major disruptions for Rio Tinto’s iron ore operations, and more heavy rainfall on January 25.
Cyclone Sean disrupted the MinRes transhipping operations, which involve using barges to ferry iron ore from Onslow to bulk carriers anchored offshore, for eight days. The three barges were sent more than 500 kilometres south to Shark Bay to ride out the bad weather.
Speaking to analysts after MinRes handed down December quarter results last Thursday (January 30), Mr Wilson said the company had taken action in response to the road train accidents on the haul road and associated access roads, including changes to road design.
“There were four different incidents between August and November. One of these occurred on the haul road, and the others occurred on various access roads at the mine or around the mine,” he said.
“The haul road has been operational since late October, and there have been no incidents in December or January.
“All incidents involve some degree of operator error, but notwithstanding this, our response has been intense. We’ve included a number of operational improvements, strengthening driver training, looking at the road design, making some improvements and improving signage and lane delineation. We feel that we’re in a good space there now.”
Originally published as Fresh trucking hell for Chris Ellison-led miner
Oceania Glass’s massive debt revealed
Australia’s biggest glass maker is sitting on a debt pile worth more than half the company’s annual turnover, its administrators have revealed.
Beach energy underwhelms market with dividend
The payout to investors overshadowed a 20 per cent jump in earnings that cements expectations that the company is well-placed in achieving its corporate turnaround. Shares slump.