New lease of life for Mars and Comet

Rio Tinto Marine, which manages the Group's ocean freight, has employed its market knowledge and Group wide reach to solve the problem of supplying tugboats for the new port serving the QIT Madagascar Minerals (QMM) mineral sands mine.

Given the tightness of the new shipbuilding market, current lead times for new tugs are over two years from placement of the order. First production from QMM is expected by the end of this year, so the only other options available were to charter or purchase second hand tugs.

Managers at Rio Tinto Marine weighed this short term problem with the longer term challenge of providing larger tugs to guide the new generation of iron ore carriers in Rio Tinto's Pilbara ports in Western Australia.

As a result, the tugboats Pilbara Mars and Pilbara Comet are crossing the Indian Ocean to work at the new Port d'Ehoala in southern Madagascar. Mars and Comet have a maximum pulling force lower than the identified future requirement of the Dampier port in the Pilbara. Effectively this made them redundant for Dampier after 15 years' service.

Geoff Shingleton, Rio Tinto Iron Ore's marine superintendent said, "It is satisfying to see the Mars and Comet going into a new operation and providing continued value to the Group."