Roy Hill, a $10 billion mining project in Australia’s Pilbara region, has commissioned the first of its new GE locomotives.
‘Ginny’ is the first of 21 locomotives being built by GE in Erie, Pennsylvania. The first 14 were delivered to Port Hedland in January.
Roy Hill’s will operate a fleet of GE Evolution Series ES44Aci diesel electric units. Three locomotives will haul 232 ore cars for 344 kilometres from the mine to the port.
Roy Hill’s chief executive, Barry Fitzgerald, said the locomotives had been chosen specifically to meet the demands of the project.
He said: “We had a range of requirements that needed to be met and after careful analysis of the locomotives available on the market – we decided on the GE ES44Aci, which are the most technologically advanced heavy haul machines available.”
The majority of construction work for the Roy Hill mine is complete and the first ore delivery is scheduled for September this year.
