URGENT WARNING The issues involved in the carriage of mineral bulk cargoes are not new. Indeed the significant number of incidents in recent years, involving fluorspar from China, iron ore from India and nickel ore from Indonesia and the Philippines have shown that despite a lot of effort the basic dangers have not gone away. The Club has previously advised on these matters in: Skuld’s web article of September 2009 Skuld web circulars of November 2007 and May 2006 Skuld Beacon article issue 2 of 2007 Recent high profile casualties involving nickel ore from Indonesia have once more brought this problem to the front pages. As a result Intercargo has released a  Warning (news release 03/10)  reminding owners and operators of the very serious risks involved. The risks involved, such as capsized vessels, lost vessels, crew deaths, are well known. Parties in the shipping industry need to be aware as to how they can be held liable for these losses. In particular charterers can be as vulnerable as owners to the risks incurred when loading such cargo, especially when the charterer is the “last time charterer” in a chain, just before the voyage charterparty. Charterers' liability under NYPE 1946 form Charterers, under a typical NYPE 1946 form, could be held entirely responsible for loading operations. The master may have limited duties - with respect to charterers - to intervene in case of bad stowage. Charterers have a strict liability to owners in case they load unsafe cargoes Under common law, Hague and Hague-Visby Rules as well as express charterparty terms, the charterer usually carries a strict liability to only load safe cargoes onto the vessel. Even if the charterparty fails to expressly mention “safe” cargoes, there will be an implied obligation under the law. What happens when there is delay caused by inappropriate cargo Substantial time loss that may be involved when a vessel needs to discharge an unsafe cargo and, absen