BHP’s iron ore supply has not been affected after a minor incident at a railyard near Port Hedland in Western Australia, the company said on Wednesday.
“A single rail car has come off the tracks at low speed and a second has partially derailed during a shunting exercise at our Port Hedland yard this morning,” a BHP spokesperson said.
“The safety controls we have in place meant nobody was in the area at the time.”
The incident occurred due to a track switch malfunction during the shunting exercise on Wednesday morning and the incident has been reported to the relevant authorities.
Safety has come into focus in the world’s top iron ore region in recent years after a number of iron ore train derailments.
A driverless train and wagons carrying iron ore for Rio Tinto derailed at its Western Australian iron ore operations in May while Fortescue also earlier logged an ore car derailment. No one was hurt in the incidents.
(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Christian Schmollinger)
