Amid blowing horns, exploding hatch covers and billowing clouds of iron ore dust, Polaris Shipping's VLOC Stellar Banner was scuttled in the Atlantic Ocean at the weekend.

The loss of the 300,000-dwt, 2016-built ore carrier will run up a considerable bill for insurers. The hull is valued at around $60m but is likely to have been insured for an even higher sum, experts suggested.

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The three-month salvage operation that ended with the scuttling operation is likely to prove even more costly than the loss of the hull.

The four-year-old vessel was declared a constructive total loss (CTL) after grounding 100km off Sao Luis in Brazil in late February. It had just departed Vale’s Ponta de Madeira terminal fully laden with a shipment of iron ore.

An extensive three-month salvage operation that involved Smit and Ardent removing fuel and cargo from the vessel culminated in it being refloated last week.

Although the ship was declared a CTL, there were suggestions that Polaris had hoped to take it to a shipyard for repairs.

The Stellar Banner was one of the three 300,000-dwt ore carrier newbuildings that South Korea’s Polaris Shipping ordered at Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2013 for more than $52m each. It was employed by Vale under a long-term contract of affreightment (COA).

In January, TradeWinds reported that Polaris was looking to sell up to 10 converted ore carriers employed by Vale on COAs.

While high fuel costs due to IMO 2020 were said to be the reason for the plan, other sources suggested the initiative was linked to safety concerns.

In March 2017, Polaris' 266,100-dwt converted VLOC Stellar Daisy (built 1993) sank off Uruguay in an incident that killed 22 of the 24-member crew.

There were no reported injuries to any of the crew on board the Stella Banner. All were safely taken off the vessel shortly after its grounding.