Jan De Nul Group has officially kicked off the deepening and widening operations in the inner port channel and turning basin of the large ore export Port of Nouadhibou, Mauritania.
With these works on the 25-km long entrance channel to the mineral terminal of Port of Nouadhibou, the National Industrial and Mineral Authority of Mauritania (Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière or SNIM) opens the port for vessels with a capacity of up to 250,000 tonnes.
One of Jan De Nul’s largest cutter suction dredgers (CSDs) Zheng He arrived in the first week of October on site.
She will soon be assisted by another Jan De Nul dredger, the trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD) Leiv Eiriksson which will arrive in the second half of October.
Both vessels will remove about 21.6 million m³ of sediments and transport the material to a dedicated offshore location. The turning circle of the port will be deepened to -20.3m.
According to Jan De Nul, in order to be able to dredge and dispose these significant quantities within the set period of 12 months, CSD Zheng He and TSHD Leiv Eiriksson will work simultaneously – the Zheng He will pre-cut the sandstone after which the Leiv Eiriksson will dredge the sediments and dispose it offshore.