Posted on July 30, 2025
Two high-capacity electric dredgers built in the Netherlands have been delivered to Mozambique’s Moma Titanium Minerals Mine, marking a key milestone in the phased upgrade of Kenmare Resources’ largest mining plant. The dredgers were shipped by Roll Group and transported inland using the company’s Scheuerle SPMTs.
The two identical cutter suction dredgers, each weighing 1,160 tonnes and measuring 62 metres long, 19 metres wide, and 18 metres high, were built by Royal IHC at its Kinderdijk shipyard. The dredgers were loaded aboard RollDock Storm, a semi-submersible vessel operated by Roll Group, which departed Rotterdam at the start of June 2025.
The vessel anchored offshore from Moma on July 4. The dredgers were floated off and subsequently beached at a purpose-built landing area around two kilometres from the mine’s dedicated port infrastructure. The first dredger was successfully landed on 18 July, with the second arriving in the weeks that followed.
SPMTs used for inland delivery
Following their beach landing, both dredgers were moved by road using Self-Propelled Modular Transporters (SPMTs). The SPMTs carried the dredgers to a dry staging pond near the mine where final assembly and integration will take place.
The staging pond was previously used in 2020 for the relocation of Kenmare’s WCP B mining plant, which also involved SPMT transport under tight spatial constraints.
WCP A upgrade: timeline and connection sequence
The two new dredgers are part of Kenmare’s upgrade of Wet Concentrator Plant A (WCP A), the company’s largest mining unit. Once the new dredgers and a new feed preparation module are in place, the staging pond will be flooded. WCP A’s existing dredgers will then mine through to the new area, detach, and be replaced by the newly delivered units.
The full connection sequence is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2025 and is expected to take three to four weeks. Commissioning of the new setup is planned ahead of WCP A’s transition to the Nataka ore zone later in the year.
“With the two new dredges now safely at Moma, all the key components required for the upgrade of WCP A are on site,” said Ben Baxter, Chief Operations Officer at Kenmare Resources. “This represents another important milestone in the progressive de-risking of this project.”
