NMC's port is in Kamsar, near the mouth of the Rio Nunez River. It takes less than three hours to unload each train. We use a wagon rocker that lifts and unloads the wagons, two by two, while remaining connected to the train.
The bauxite is transported by conveyors to a storage area, with a capacity of 1,300,000 tons. The storage area is equipped with a powerful bucket wheel that ensures the storage or retrieval of bauxite at a speed of 4,500 metric tons per hour.
A network of underground and overhead conveyors is then used to transport the bauxite to the barge loader at the end of a 1.5 km jetty. It takes the shipper, with a capacity of 5,000 metric tons per hour, two hours to fill a 10,000-ton barge.
The barges transport the bauxite ore to the transshipment site, located 40 kilometres away, in deeper waters. This allows the use of Capesize type vessels for maritime transport. The Capesize vessels are about 300 meters long and 50 meters wide and can carry nearly 180,000 tons of bauxite.
At the transshipment point, floating cranes with backhoe bodies are moored on either side of the ocean-going vessel, allowing bauxite to be transferred directly from the barge to the export vessel. It takes about four and a half days to load a Capesize vessel.