Recent events in transporting sponge iron fines (dust) , mainly the saeborne fire on the sponge iron hold in a ship travelling from trinidad to China, with an unscheduled stop in Acapulco to try to unload the cargo. Have made me recall your tread.

Sponge iron in theory goes trough a pasivation ritual that is supposed to reduce the activity of the material to "safe standards".

It is not clear at the moment whether the ritual was not followed as this was a cargo of "low metalization fines" .

or sea water was allowed to enter the hold.

or accumulated gas was ignited by a nearby crew doing repairs .

or that that particular mineral is inherently unsafe .

The blame game goes on....

In The absence of information we can only speculate , making assumtions and then plannig barriers to allow for a safer trip the next time.

Infrarred sensing 11 to 19 microns wavelength to be less sensitive to sunlight, .2 secons response time, Documented and signed continuous instrument readouts .

Hold gas monitoring an registers with human monitoting every 4 to 6 hrs. gas alarms.

Fire (flame detection systems in the loading leffs and conveyor transfer stations before the loader).

And documented and signed passivation procedure accomplishment, should be in place .

Hold temperature monitoring both surface scanning and core.

And a coompresnsive contingency procedure should have been in place, the information available makes one believe none was used ( i could be wrong ) but the blame tugg of war will continue until the next onboard fire if no serious accident analysis is made.

Infrarred sensing technology is up to age . For god sake start using it is not even expensive.

Regards

Marco ■