From the Heartland to the World

2008 Neighbors Report | Posted in Mining and Milling, Our Business

Doe Run Image

Riverside shipping facility brings Missouri lead to
market faster than ever

Missouri may be in the heart of America, but it’s also at the center of the world’s lead supply chain. As a global provider of premium metals, Doe Run has been using SEMO Port near Scott City, Mo., to transport Missouri concentrates to customers around the world since 2004.

Today, Missouri lead is traveling faster than ever to destinations abroad, thanks in part to a riverside shipping facility that opened in April 2008. In partnership with Girardeau Stevedores and Contractors, Inc., and the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority, Doe Run improved transportation of lead concentrates out of the SEMO Port through construction of this high-tech bulk transfer facility.

“We mine all of our lead ore right here in Missouri,” explained Bob Roscoe, vice president of mining and general manager of Doe Run’s Southeast Missouri Mining and Milling Division. “The ore we mine contains about 5 percent lead and is processed into a concentrate that is about 78 percent lead. The high quality of Doe Run’s Missouri concentrates has created a favorable reputation worldwide. To meet demand, it’s essential that our transportation system runs smoothly.”

PHOTO CAPTION ABOVE: The high-tech bulk transfer facility at SEMO Port is equipped with a new conveyance system, weigh stations, an integrated truck washing station and vacuum-equipped loading tubes to contain the loading process.

Strategically located along the Mississippi River, 48 miles upstream from the Ohio River and 147 miles downstream from the Illinois River, SEMO Port serves as a critical transportation hub for U.S. products being moved across North America and to other countries. Doe Run’s lead concentrates travel to the port by truck.

“Before the facility opened, we needed some elaborate ‘choreography’ with trucks and barges so we could line up and weigh the 70 trucks needed to fill each barge,” said Dallas Nichols, transportation manager with Doe Run. “Sometimes we had trucks or barges waiting for their ‘partner’ in the loading process, which could turn into a slow and expensive proposition.”

The planning and engineering of the new transfer facility incorporated best practice standards and local contractor expertise. Doe Run currently has exclusive use rights to the building and is leasing it from the owner, Girardeau Stevedores.

Equipped with a new conveyance system, weigh stations, an integrated truck washing station and vacuum-equipped loading tubes to contain the loading process, the facility also meets the following goals for Doe Run:

  • Improves the receiving, storage, loading and shipping process at the SEMO Port;
  • Makes the handling and shipping process more efficient; and
  • Serves as a visually appealing storage warehouse and onsite truck washing station with much improved environmental performance.

As lead concentrate arrives from Doe Run’s mines, it is placed in the new 12,500-ton capacity, 20,000-square-foot building. Due to the incredible weight of lead concentrate, the 3½-foot-thick building floor was constructed using 2,600 cubic yards of steel-reinforced concrete – heralded as the largest continuous concrete pour in southeast Missouri history.

The barges have a 1,800-ton allowable capacity. To accurately determine shipment weight, Doe Run employs the latest scale technology. Shipping weights are calculated through the use of a computerized scale, and the resulting readings are instantly transferred to Doe Run’s corporate office in St. Louis.

Doe Run Image“We now have a much more timely and accurate picture of our business, which is essential to competing in a world marketplace,” said Jose Hansen, Doe Run’s vice president of sales and marketing.

The United States ran a $256 billion trade deficit with China last year, because, as a nation, Americans bought more goods from China than were sold to the country. Doe Run’s shipments move the other way. Exports through SEMO Port over the last four years averaged $75 million per year. The lion’s share of Doe Run exports went to China. From April to October 2008, Doe Run shipped more than 50,000 short wet tons of lead concentrate through the new warehouse.

“Everyone involved in the new shipping operation is making a positive contribution to our nation’s balance of trade and helping the economy here in the United States,” Hanson said. “SEMO Port is literally where lead begins its voyage from the heartland to the world.”

PHOTO CAPTION: A high-tech bulk transfer facility loads lead concentrates from Doe Run onto a river barge at the SEMO Port in Scott City, Mo.

 

 

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