The Kuantan Port has been upgraded to handle the state’s bauxite shipments should the moratorium on bauxite mining in Kuantan finally end on Dec 31.

Kuantan Port Consortium Sdn Bhd (KPC) chief executive officer Khasbullah A Kadir said a huge sum of money was spent to upgrade its facilities with conservation of the environment in mind.

“We have four washing bays compared to one previously. We have adhered to government guidelines on bauxite stockpiling sites and transport at the port.

“We cleared our stockpile in the first three months after the moratorium was imposed. Anyone who comes to the port can see the difference compared with early this year. Now we are waiting for directions from the government," Khasbullah was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.

He said the shipments would be carried out under approval permits issued by the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry with a limit of between 300,000 and 400,000 tonnes per month.

Prior to the moratorium being imposed in January, the port had been handling between 3.4 and 3.6 million tonnes of bauxite per month.

Khasbullah said the volume handled by the port might increase if the operation returned to normal, but noted that tests had been carried out to find out how much bauxite the port could handle without impacting the environment.

KPC and the BN-led Pahang state government had previously been lambasted for improper management of bauxite which led to an all-out environmental crisis in the state a year ago.

According to an audit report conducted by the Environmental Department, land-clearing activities such as farming, logging and mining had caused contamination of raw water sources and closure of water treatment plants in the state.

The federal government finally stepped in and imposed a moratorium in January.

This was supposed to end in April but it had been repeatedly extended until Dec 31.