Photo by: Duane Daws
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The entire 861 km section of Transnet Freight Rail’s (TFR’s) export iron-ore line, which operates between Sishen, in the Northern Cape, and Saldanha Bay, in the Western Cape, will undergo its yearly shutdown from August 12 for planned maintenance works.
The ten-day shutdown, during which specialised infrastructure maintenance and upgrade projects would be conducted, was expected to be concluded on August 21 and would likely cost in the region of R114-million.
The planned maintenance and upgrades were also intended to prepare the existing infrastructure to sustain current and future volume growth in line with the Transnet group’s Market Demand Strategy.
In addition, the shutdown period would be used by the iron-ore mines that transported product on the line, as well as by Transnet Engineering, Transnet Port Terminals and energy utility Eskom, to perform plant and equipment maintenance that could otherwise not be performed without disrupting operations.
All other employees and personnel not involved in the shutdown would take part in training initiatives and attend key meetings.
The iron-ore line’s contribution to TFR’s volumes was a sizeable 58-million tons of iron-ore and two-million tons of manganese a year.