Karumba 12 July - Ladymaggic - Picasa Web Albums

Karumba 12 July - Ladymaggic - Picasa Web Albums

Located at the mouth of the Norman River in the south-east corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria, the Port of
Karumba has serviced remote Gulf communities since the late 1800s. The Zinifex Century Mine started
exporting zinc concentrate through the port in December 1999.
Zinc concentrates are thickened before being pumped 304km by pipeline to the port from the mine,
dewatered and stored at a facility on the Norman River in Karumba. Concentrate is loaded on to ships
via a purpose-built self-unloading vessel that can transfer up to 5,000 tonnes of concentrate at a time to
the ships that are moored in deep water in the Gulf of Carpentaria, about 24 nautical miles off the coast.
Other facilities in the port provide for general cargo, fuel and fisheries products. Historically, Karumba
has also handled regular exports of live cattle.
PCQ provides maintenance dredging to maintain the necessary channel depth, usually about every two
years. Maritime Safety Queensland provides pilotage services, but no tugs are required at the port.
In 2004–05, the Port of Karumba handled 46 ships carrying 871,125 tonnes of zinc, 77,030 tonnes of
lead, 13,327 head of livestock and 24,086 tonnes of general cargo. Compared to the previous year, zinc
was down by 7.24%, lead by 48.57%, general cargo by 14.17%, but live cattle was up by 17.2%.
Karumba is also a transhipment port for the Port of Weipa, Mornington Island and other Gulf
communities, with refrigerated semi-trailers bringing goods north to Karumba for transhipment.