Van Oord is deepening and widening the access channel and turning basin of a large ore export facility in Nouadhibou, Mauritania.
Two trailing suction hopper dredgers, one of which is owned by Van Oord, will be deployed for the dredging work.
According to the company, Von Oord’s flagship HAM 318 is busy working in the area.
It is the largest of this type of dredgers in Van Oord’s cutting-edge fleet. The vessel was extended by 52 meters to 228 meters at the COSCO shipyard in China in 2008. This increased its hopper capacity from 23,783 to 37,500 cubic meters.
Mauritania is the second-largest exporter of iron ore on the African continent.
The project supported by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) consists in deepening and widening 25 km of the SNIM (Société nationale industrielle et minière) mineral terminal’s access channel.
Thanks to the deeper and wider port access, ships with a capacity of up to 250,000 tonnes will be able to access the newly built berths.