NEWS RELEASE
Date 1 August 1997
Time Immediate
Release No 44/97
BHP IRON ORE INCREASES ROLLING STOCK FLEET
TO MEET PRODUCTION GROWTH
As part of the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Ltd's plans
ensure capacity is available to expand iron ore shipments from
its Pilbara mines, orders have been placed for eight new
locomotives and 231 ore cars.
BHP Iron Ore shipped a record 62.2 million tonnes to the year
ended May 1997. Some of this rolling stock is part of the
previously announced capacity expansion program at the Nelson
Point shipping facility and railroad operations. This program
will take total capacity to more than 70 million tonnes per
year.
The new locomotives, General Electric AC6000, are 6,000
horsepower units driving through six alternating current
traction motors. The new units will have the capacity to haul a
240-car train with three locomotives, compared to the current
requirement for four.
Additional benefits will include higher adhesion, improved
tractive effort and dynamic braking performance, fewer
mechanical components resulting in reduced maintenance
requirements and improved fuel efficiency.
The purchase will allow the retirement from service of eight GE
Dash-7 locomotives from the Goldsworthy railroad, to be
replaced by eight GE Dash-8s from the Newman fleet, which in
turn will be replaced with six of the new AC6000s.
In addition, the 231 ore cars will expand the ore car fleet by
more than ten per cent. Each car normally carries a payload of
between 110 and 115 tonnes of iron ore.
The total value of the series of contracts, let to A. Goninan &
Company Limited, in Perth, is just under Dlrs70 million.
Approximately fifty per cent of the work, to be completed in
the next twenty months, will be undertaken in Western
Australia.
Contact: Judith Thomson
Manager Public Affairs, BHP Iron Ore, Perth
Tel: +61 8 93204170
A/H: +61 8 93862237