Creating the World's First Open Lighterage for Alaska's Red Dog Mine
When mine operator Teck Cominco, Alaska needed to transport thousands of tons of concentrated zinc ore from a remote shallow-draft port to ships anchored five miles offshore in open water, Foss Maritime found a solution. Red Dog Mine—a zinc mine 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle—trucks the ore across a specially built 52-mile road to the Red Dog Port, where it is stored in a massive building that is 500 yards long and 11 stories high. Because it is a shallow-draft port, which ships cannot enter, Foss developed and built self-loading barges to pick up the ore and lighter it to the ships anchored offshore.
Harsh weather conditions and ice limit the shipping season to 90-100 days, demanding an extremely efficient system, with no allowance for error. For this project, Foss developed the world's first—and remains the only—open-roadstead loading of dry bulk cargo in an unprotected environment.
Foss crews manage the terminal and marine operations for the open-ocean lighterage of Teck Cominco.
A Foss tug tows one of the self-unloading barges from the terminal to a waiting ship.
Ore being offloaded from the Foss barge to a ship.
Loading a barge at the terminal.
Foss is accustomed to working in the harsh Arctic environment.