Runaway one-man train crash in Western Australia contributed to US$600 million loss in productivity

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald, January 22, 2019) 

SYDNEY, Australia — Mining giant BHP has revealed a freight train derailment in Western Australia, a plant outage in South Australia and a copper mine fire in Chile have led to a $US600 million ($838 million) hit to productivity for the first half of the 2019 financial year. BHP, in November, was forced to deliberately derail a runaway train loaded with iron ore in Western Australia’s remote Pilbara region, which severed the crucial rail link between its mines and shipping hub in Port Hedland, and disrupted exports of its most lucrative commodity. The BHP train, consisting of four locomotives and 268 wagons filled with iron ore, was derailed by BHP’s remote operations centre. It had been travelling from Newman to Port Hedland when the driver disembarked at a siding to inspect an issue with an ore car, before the train started moving by itself. 

Full story: www.smh.com.au

Tuesday, January 22, 2019