Shipping venture to repay mine bill

A MINING company will get a payout after a ship transporting copper anodes to Townsville broke down mid- journey.

The cargo ship Thor Commander broke down on January 11, 2015 while carrying more than eight million tonnes of copper to Townsville for Mount Isa Mines to go to the Glencore copper refinery.

After the main engine breakdown, sparked by a failure to maintain fuel injection nozzles, Thor Commander drifted in the Coral Sea off Mackay towards the Great Barrier Reef and had to be towed to Gladstone.

Last month Justice Steven Rares ordered the ship’s owners, MarShip, to pay almost $ 1.5 million to Mount Isa Mines to cover its share of the salvage reward, legal costs and the cost of shipping part of the cargo from Gladstone back to Townsville after the salvage.

The court heard the vessel’s owners organised a tug Smit Leopard to tow it to Gladstone but the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and the Ukrainian master of Thor Commander, Captain Glib Chaplin, were uncertain whether it would arrive before the ship became grounded on the reef.

On January 12 AMSA called for a tow for the Thor Commander and Captain Li Fazhong, shipmaster of Xinfa Hai came to the rescue, towing it away from the reef to be met by Smit Leopard the next day.

Mount Isa Mines paid $ US1 million to the owners, master and crew of Xinfa Hai as a salvage reward with a $ US1 million payment but MarShip later argued that they paid too much.

Justice Steven Rares said the payment was reasonable and ruled MarShip, the owners of Thor Commander should pay Mount Isa Mines $ USD 909,000 to cover its share of the salvage reward.

“The salvors were not professionals in salvage,” he said.

“They undertook a challenging and successful salvage operation.

“It is important that ships in the vicinity of a vessel that is in danger, or that poses a danger, if unaided, to the environment, be encouraged to respond and offer salvage services.”

Justice Rares also ruled MarShip should cover the $ 147,956.27 cost of shipping 1030 tonnes of the cargo from Gladstone to Townsville.