This story has been updated to correct an error.
An enormous piece of industrial equipment has reached its new home on the North Vancouver waterfront.
Neptune Terminals accepted delivery of its new stacker reclaimer this week, a major component of an $800-million upgrade project for the coal export facility.
After 18 months of construction totalling 100,000 hours of labour from 50 different companies, the 30-metre-tall, 1,200-tonne stacker reclaimer entered the Vancouver harbour via barge early Sunday morning. It was built by Victoria manufacturer United Engineering.
“Which was awesome. We are big promoters of purchasing local,” said Duana Kipling, acting president for Neptune. “A lot of companies look overseas, Asia and places like that.”
The massive bucket loader at the end of the stacker reclaimer’s 45-metre boom scoops up coal and deposits it onto a conveyor belt, which feeds the ship loader at the dock.
When the upgraded terminal comes online in the first quarter of 2021, it should have a capacity of 22 million tonnes per year, up from the 10-million tonne capacity the terminal has operated at in recent years. Upgrades include a new ship loader, a double rotary dumper for offloading by rail cars and enhanced trail infrastructure.
“It enables us to move more volume, but the neat thing is: we do it more efficiently. So we're not going to be stockpiling any more coal on site, we're just able to move it through quicker,” Kipling said.
Part of the upgrades to the terminal involved dredging the inlet to allow larger Capesize bulk carrier vessels, so while more coal will be exported from North Vancouver, shipping traffic from the terminal should remain about the same, Kipling said.
The terminal handles only metallurgical coal, which is one of the necessary materials in steelmaking.
