2 ms·
1000 tons of CLEAN ammonium in good shape. It's rather hard to explode all mass of pure ammonium or even ANFO in mines, it's routine to find unexploded pellets
by yetihehe 6y ago
1000 tons of CLEAN ammonium in good shape. It's rather hard to explode all mass of pure ammonium or even ANFO in mines, it's routine to find unexploded pellets all over the place. It's even harder to explode whole mass of ammonium which sat for several years in humid conditions (ammonium nitrate is VERY higroscopic).
- rob74 6y agoI was wondering about that too, especially since when investigating the state of the cargo they found out that already in 2015 "most of the one-ton bags containing the ammonium nitrate — approximately 1,900 — were ripped and had their contents spilling out". So some of it may have surely been stolen over the years, but not 1500-2000 tons...
- yetihehe 6y agoYeah, consider logistics of stealing 1000 tons of something. If it's not organized big truck removal, you are looking at ferrying max 200-300kg at a time with small car, loading one ton of fertilizer with shovel will also take more than a hour during which thieves can be nabbed. After two years in humid environment you can't use shovel anymore, you have to use pickaxe to split it apart into large chunks (and explosion risk is relatively high for such operation). That's why no company was interested, it was not easily useful for anyone.