Fortescue (ASX: FMG) has commenced commissioning of two new battery electric locomotives on its rail network as it moves to decarbonise its Pilbara iron ore operations.
After years of delays, the rail routes of Western Australia’s resource-rich Pilbara are starting to whirr with the sound of battery-electric power.
Billionaire Andrew Forrest’s mining giant is the second of the region’s major companies, and among its largest carbon emitters, to test the technology.
BHP began its own Pilbara trials of battery-electric trains in November.
“We’ll test them with our conventional fleet and we want to understand exactly [their] performance … then we’ll pull the trigger on a fully decarbonised solution for rail,” said Fortescue chief executive Dino Otranto.
Rarely caught short on spectacle the first of the blue-and-white locomotives pulled into Port Hedland’s Thomas Rail Yard to rock band Wolfmother’s 2005 hit, Joker & the Thief.