From a Land Down Under

The Pilbara region in Western Australia has some of the world’s most ancient natural landscapes, dating back two billion years and stretching over 500,000 square kilometres. Pilbara is also known as the engine room of Australia, with its vast mineral deposits - home to a massive mining industry, petroleum and natural gas production, which contribute greatly to Australia’s economy.

One of the by-products that can be created from the hydrogen extracted from natural gas is liquid ammonia. This is used in the manufacture of fertilizer and also ammonium nitrate, a key component of explosives used in mining and this is where we got involved..!

Orica and their JV partners Yara International committed to build the first modularised technical ammonia nitrate manufacturing plant in the Pilbara.

Using specialist project teams in Norway, Spain, Indonesia and Australia, key segments of the facility were built offshore and shipped to site. Heavy lift and transport contractor Sarens were awarded the transport and installation of the various modules on site. Techlift were brought in by Sarens, under direction from Técnicas Reunidas, to carry out an independent design verification of their strand jack lifting towers and undertake onsite witness and verification of the system load testing.

A very interesting project in a fascinating land of vast red rock mountains and rusty red earth.