Transnet to reopen Sishen–Saldanha line on Wednesday

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Sishen–Saldanha railway line would be reopened on Wednesday evening, Transnet Freight Rail (TFR) spokesperson Sandile Simelane confirmed on Monday.

The railway line was closed on Thursday afternoon, after a train transporting iron-ore from Kumba Iron Ore’s Sishen mine to the port of Saldanha derailed near Vredenburg.

One diesel and one electric locomotive, along with 107 wagons in the rear portion of the train, had derailed.

Simelane said that the railway and the overhead cables had also suffered some damage in the incident.

The 861-km railway line is the second-largest railway line in terms of revenue generation and carried iron-ore from mines in the Sishen region, in the Northern Cape, to the port of Saldanha for exports.

Between 900 000 t and one-million tons of iron-ore was transported on the railway line each week, noted Simelane.

Source miningweekly.com

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