Ship sought for 50,000 tons of copper concentrate
LONDON (Reuters) – Greece-based Five Oceans Salvage Consultants, handling the transfer of about 50,000 tons of copper concentrate from the damaged vessel Ocean Crown in Chile, said yesterday it could take up to a week to find another ship. The vessel carrying material from the giant mine Escondida – 57.5 percent-owned by BHP Billiton – was refloated on August 14 and taken to the Chilean port Puerto Montt after being grounded in the Magellan Strait on August 7. «I expect that the receiving vessel should be there in the next few days or week to take over the cargo and deliver it to its destination,» Operations Manager Kyriakos Mitsothakis at Five Oceans Salvage Consultants Ltd told Reuters. The salvage firm said it was talking to several shipping firms but there is a shortage of ships and the port is in a very remote part of the world.