Monadelphous is deepening its work on BHP’s biggest current upgrade at Port Hedland, winning a $200 million contract to build a sixth car dumper at the Nelson Point port facility in Western Australia.
The job is part of BHP’s Port Debottlenecking Project 2 (PDP2), a program aimed at clearing congestion at Port Hedland so more iron ore can move through the port and onto ships. Car dumpers unload ore from rail wagons by rotating the wagons and tipping the contents onto conveyors for ship loading. BHP runs five of them across Nelson Point and Finucane Island, and a sixth gives the port room to keep moving ore when one goes offline for maintenance.
“(The contract award reflects) the company’s strong customer value proposition, built on long-term customer relationships and a proven track record of delivery,” Monadelphous managing director Zoran Bebic said.
“We look forward to working closely with BHP to successfully deliver PDP2 and increase port capacity.”
Monadelphous will install and commission the structural, mechanical, piping, electrical and instrumentation work on the new Car Dumper 6 and the conveyors and equipment that feed it. Work starts now and finishes in 2028.
It is the second PDP2 contract Monadelphous has landed this year. In January, the company picked up a $175 million contract for civil, structural, mechanical, piping and electrical work at BHP’s car dumper on nearby Finucane Island, swapping out key equipment during a planned shutdown. That followed Monadelphous rebuilding Car Dumper 3 at Nelson Point in 2025, a job that added another decade to the machine’s life.
The port work comes on top of a busy stretch in iron ore for the Perth-based group. Monadelphous recently won a $165 million contract through its Kerman Contracting business for infrastructure at Rio Tinto’s Brockman Syncline 1 project in the Pilbara, including a heavy equipment workshop, vehicle washdown areas, tyre-change bays and refuelling facilities.