The past month has seen Metro Mining notch up record December shipments from its Bauxite Hills site, beating the 2023 figure by 53 per cent.

This finish took total 2024 shipments from Bauxite Hills to 5.7 million wet metric tonnes, an annual record and 24 per cent above 2023.

The figures reflect the ramp-up in production achieved through an expansion project to take site capacity to 7Mtpa.

Metro Mining said record December shipments of 477,000 WMT were achieved despite 10 days of adverse weather conditions, including wave heights of up to 3.5m.

This impacted production and transhipping operations at the Cape York Peninsula mine.

In addition, the offshore floating terminal Ikamba ceased operations for two days for a maintenance shutdown.

‘Pleasingly, during the period of adverse weather, Ikamba demonstrated good operational resilience, remaining offshore and able to safely take advantage of loading windows where in the past no transhipping would have occurred,’ the company reported in an update to the ASX.

‘This operational capability can now be factored into future planning for an extended operating season.’

Metro announced that, after a first trial capesize cargo in 2024, it has landed a new multi-cargo offtake contract for 2025 with Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) – shipping to its high-temperature alumina refinery in Abu Dhabi.

The target shipment range from Bauxite Hills for 2025 is 6.5 to 7.0 million WMT on the back of the recently completed expansion project.

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