The commitment was reinforced following further analysis of off-shore conditions near the proposed project, including the site of a proposed jetty.
“When we first visited Onslow in 2016, the community views on dredging were loud and clear – the community would not accept our project if we dredged a shipping channel,” said K+S Salt Australia Managing Director Gerrit Gödecke.
“We have always known a shipping channel would not be an option for this project.”
Instead, the German salt producer is proposing the use of a low-draft transhipper to transfer salt to deeper, offshore water for loading onto larger ocean-going ships.
While the proposed shipping point is directly on the ocean, not the Exmouth Gulf (there will be no shipping at all on the Exmouth Gulf), the near-shore water is still very shallow. A small berthing pocket would require dredging for use in low tide, however it would be very small and dredging spoils would be unloaded on land, not the ocean.
In details recently finalised, the scale of pocket dredging and also indicative transhipment impacts – have been defined, providing more detail about the exact nature of the salt export process.