Duro Felguera delivers a complex material handling system for the mining industry in Chile

The project, located in Mejillones Bay, enables the large-scale transport and storage of sodium carbonate using a two-kilometre tubular belt system.

Duro Felguera, through its Mining & Handling business unit, has successfully completed a project to build a port facility for the transport and storage of sodium carbonate or soda ash in Mejillones Bay (Antofagasta Region, Chile). The client is Puerto Abierto S.A. (PASA), a subsidiary of Puerto Ventanas S.A., and the facility is now fully operational.

The ‘Andean Maritime Terminal Development – Soda Ash Handling and Storage System’ project is part of the new logistics terminal for the unloading, loading, transfer and storage of bulk products. The facility, owned by Puerto Abierto S.A. (PASA), currently serves SQM, one of the country’s leading mining companies and a user of the terminal, which has successfully unloaded the first soda ash ships.

The new facility allows sodium carbonate to be transported from the Puerto Abierto (PASA) port terminal to the storage facilities, from where the material is then dispatched to truck loading stations for further distribution.

The terminal allows the unloading of sodium carbonate (soda ash) from ships and its transport via a system of tubular conveyor belts approximately two kilometres long to the storage domes, which have a total capacity of around 80,000 m³ of soda ash.

The official inauguration of the terminal, held yesterday in the presence of Chilean authorities and representatives of the mining and industrial sector, was attended by Saúl Paunero, director of Duro Felguera’s EPC projects line, who highlighted “the professionalism and commitment of the entire team, which has enabled us to fully meet the objectives and requirements of our client, with whom we have been collaborating successfully for the last ten years and whom we thank for their trust‘.
This project highlights Duro Felguera’s technical strength and its ability to develop comprehensive engineering and construction solutions in highly complex environments, reaffirming our position as a reliable and trusted partner on the international stage’.

The project is of strategic importance for Chile and the Antofagasta region, as it strengthens the logistics network in the north of the country and optimises the handling of sodium carbonate, an essential input in the production of lithium carbonate, which is key in the global electric battery chain.