8/21/2014 MARS 2011

201107 Capsize of vessels carrying nickel ore, with fatalities

Condensed from BIMCO News 12 Nov 2010, UK P&I Club LP Bulletin 602, Nepia Signals no. 69

Recently, two bulk carriers loaded with Indonesian nickel ore (s om etim es also known as nickel laterite, lateritic nickel
ore, lim onite or saprolite, and us ually s hipped from Indonesia and the Philippines ) sank at sea with fatalities .

The standard m ethods of determ ining the flow m oisture point (FMP) of bulk cargoes which m ay liquefy, as s tated in the
International Maritim e Solid Bulk Cargoes Code (IMSBC), were developed prim arily for hom ogenised m etal
concentrates, whereas nickel ore is a m ixture of very fine clay-like particles and larger rock particles of various s izes .
Moreover, m etal concentrates have a typical m oisture content of about 10 per cent, whereas nickel ore often has a
m ois ture content in the range of 25-40 per cent. Thes e problem s m ake it difficult to tes t nickel ore for liquefaction
param eters.

Serious doubts have been expres sed about the accuracy of transportable m oisture lim it (TML) and m oisture content
(MC) data that is provided to m asters at nickel ore loading ports . In m any ins tances, the sam pling and tes ting is carried
out by the m ine's in-house laboratory and the certificates only s tate that the m aterial has been tes ted in accordance
with the IMSBC flow table tes t (FTT) m ethod and found to pass. No figures for the FMP and TML are stated although
average MC, which is valueles s without a TML, is provided. Furtherm ore, audits of the s am pling and testing m ethods
us ed by thes e m ines have always revealed s erious deficiencies, m aking values certified by s hippers m eaningles s .

If the 'can test' perform ed by the vess el's crew indicates the likelihood of m oisture m igration and liquefaction, the cargo
as a whole m ust be as s um ed to be unsafe for carriage regardless of s hippers' certification. In m any cas es of Appendix
A cargoes Ð thos e that are liable to liquefy Ð shipowners are faced with a choice of either accepting the values certified
by s hippers knowing that they m ay be unreliable, or of becom ing involved in a costly investigation and pos sible
rejection of the cargo with its attendant legal consequences . These actions are beyond the expertise and capacity of the
m as ter and an ordinary cargo s urveyor and only expert attendance at the m ine and in port can properly conduct the
sam pling and certification procedures necess ary to ens ure the s afety of cargo, crew and ves sel.

In a recent case, it was found that the m ine, in clear violation of the IMSBC, did not routinely s am ple the s tockpiles prior
to shipm ent, but rather the sam pling was conducted during the course of loading. This data was then presented to the
m as ter of the next ves sel to load at the term inal. In turn, the results of the analysis of the cargo loaded on board the
subject vessel would then be pres ented to the next ship and so on. Due to this illegal practice, the m as ter would have
been totally unaware of the fact that he was carrying a cargo for which the docum entation was deliberately fals e, and
that des pite acceptable param eters on the certificate, the cargo could very well liquefy and potentially capsize the
ves s el.

The interval between s am pling/tes ting and loading m us t never be m ore than seven days. If the cargo has been expos ed
to significant rain or s om e form of m ois ture between the tim es of testing and loading, further tests shall be conducted
to ens ure that the MC is s till les s than the cargo's TML, which is generally determ ined as 90 per cent of FMP.

Mariners m ust rem em ber the s im ple relationship MC < TML < FMP. Only if the MC is significantly less than the TML can
the cargo be considered to be s afe to load. It is also im portant not to confus e the com m ercial MC with FMP. Even
though a receiver m ay be willing to accept cargo with a MC of 35 per cent by weight, it can only be accepted by the
ves s el if this is well below TML.

http://www.nautinst.org/en/forums/mars/mars-2011.cfm/201107 1/5
8/21/2014 MARS 2011

In the laboratory, the FMP is determ ined by adding water to a s tock sam ple of nickel ore until a flow s tate is
determ ined. The FTT m ethod involves preparing a sam ple on a flow table in the form of a truncated cone. The flow
table top is then raised and allowed to fall s harply through a defined vertical distance. This sim ple procedure is
repeated up to 50 tim es and the behaviour of the sam ple cone observed to see if 'plastic deform ation' has occurred.
However, the IMSBC states that the m ethod m ay 'not give satisfactory results for som e m aterials with high clay content',
which m eans that great care is required in perform ing the test for nickel ore.

Appendix 2 of the IMSBC Code (2009) s tates : 'A flow s tate is considered to have been reached when the m ois ture
content and com paction of the s am ple produce a level of saturation s uch that plastic deform ation occurs . At this stage,
the m oulded sides of the s am ple m ay deform , giving a convex or concave profile'.

http://www.nautinst.org/en/forums/mars/mars-2011.cfm/201107 2/5
8/21/2014 MARS 2011

Figure 1 illus trates the s hape of a s am ple cone for a sam ple below FMP, while Figure 2 s hows the shape of a s am ple
cone after recent tes ting with a MC of about 31 per cent. Despite the cone being deform ed, with a recorded cone
expans ion >6m m , it was regarded as being below FMP.

http://www.nautinst.org/en/forums/mars/mars-2011.cfm/201107 3/5
8/21/2014 MARS 2011

The sam ple was not failed until the cone had expanded by a m assive 20m m , as shown in Figure 3, with a declared
FMP of 33.8 per cent. The m ine was unable to jus tify their change of m ethodology, which ignored all the key indicators
of a flow state (see page 300 of the IMSBC Code: Editor), and enabled them to ship wetter cargo at a greater risk to the
ves s el.

Follow us on:
Privacy Policy
Term s & Conditions

The Nautical Institute

202 Lam beth Road, London, SE1 7LQ
T:+44 (0)20 7928 1351 F:+44(0)20 7401 2817
E: s ec@nautinst.org W: www.nautinst.org
The Nautical Institute is a Registered Charity No.1002462

© Copyright 2014 The Nautical Ins titute

http://www.nautinst.org/en/forums/mars/mars-2011.cfm/201107 4/5
8/21/2014 MARS 2011

Web Design by Pixl8

http://www.nautinst.org/en/forums/mars/mars-2011.cfm/201107 5/5