MOMA Titanium Mine Project 2005 – Unloading in Mozambique
MOMA Titanium Mine Project 2005 – Loading in Bunbury, Australia.
MOMA Titanium Mine Project 2005 – Unloading in Mozambique
MOMA Titanium Mine Project 2005 – Loading in Bunbury, Australia.
The signature projects being MOMA, Mozambique Phase 1 (2005) and MOMA Phase 2 (2011).
During the MOMA projects, all the cargo required for set up and installation of the remote MOMA Titanium Mine and subsequent expansion was transshipped offshore. Arriving from various locations worldwide on a Thorco vessel, the cargo was then transshipped to a cargo barge prior to delivery by Comarco across the exposed beaches of Mozambique direct to site where sea swell, currents and weather were key deciding factors on any beaching operation.
Beaching in MOMA was extremely exposed and subject to consistent swells and it was here that Comarco pioneered and perfected the Exposed Beach Operation System, now known as the EBOS.
It is a system of deploying winched breasting lines either side of a barge with a 3rd winch to pull the loaded barge into the beaching position.
Beaching a 250ft loaded barge in a hostile environment is an achievement in itself: landing within an accuracy of a few feet, delivering out of gauge heavy pontoon cargo ashore safely, and extracting the barge from the location.
“To find a partner with the beach landing experience into hostile and exposed, difficult to operate environments is not easy and is a real feat of ingenuity, experience and perseverance. Comarco was the natural fit,” explains Thomas Mikkelson, CEO of Thorco Shipping.
Comarco was established in 1971, in Mombasa, Kenya before expanding its range of activities and area of operations throughout the entire Indian Ocean and along the Eastern Africa Seaboard.
Comarco is now the leading marine and specialised logistics contractor in the region with over forty years of experience operating its own fleet of tugs, barges, supply vessels and specialised equipment for offshore, close shore, and beach operations.
Thorco Shipping is headquartered in Copenhagen and with offices in Svendborg, Bremen, Dubai, Hong Kong, Houston, Livorno, London, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo.
Our current fleet constitute of multipurpose general cargo and heavy-lift tweendeck vessels with capacities ranging from 5,400 to 19,600 deadweight tonnage.
