Salvage workers have managed to refloat an ageing bulker that has been aground close to a Unesco World Heritage site for more than two months.

The 74,000-dwt Solomon Trader (built 1994), partially loaded with 11,000 tonnes of bauxite, got stuck in the Solomon Islands' Rennell Bay in February this year after being caught up in a storm.

There were fears of a major pollution incident with 700 tonnes of bunker fuel on the vessel in an environmentally sensitive region.