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Our operations

As one of the world’s largest producers of iron ore, Fortescue’s wholly owned and integrated operations in the Pilbara include the Chichester and Western Hubs, and our new magnetite project, Iron Bridge.

Our operations

Our mining infrastructure is connected to the five berth Herb Elliott Port and Judith Street Harbour towage facility in Port Hedland via the fastest heavy haul railway in the world.

Operations map

Highlights

Overview of our operations

  • > 2bt

    Iron ore shipped since 2003

  • 3

    mining Hubs

  • 760 km

    of rail

  • 8

    ore carriers

  • > 190mt

    annual shipments

Integrated Operations Centre 

Our Fortescue Hive is a purpose-built Integrated Operations Centre in Perth that opened in 2020 and includes our Planning, Operations and Mine Control teams, together with Port, Rail, Shipping and Marketing teams. In FY23, the Hive was expanded to include an Iron Bridge control desk. The Hive allows team members across our value chain to work together 24 hours a day, seven days a week to deliver improved safe, reliable, efficient and commercial outcomes.

World-leading technology

Fortescue was one of the first companies in the world to deploy autonomous haulage technology on a commercial scale when trucks fitted with autonomous haulage system (AHS) technology began operating at the Solomon Hub in 2013.

Today, our AHS fleet is among the largest in the world and demonstrates our unique capability to manage and operate a multi-class truck size autonomous haulage site. In FY22, we achieved 2.5 billion tonnes of material moved by autonomous haulage.

When our Train Control Centre opened in 2009, we were the first operation in Western Australia to control a railway from outside the region. Now known as the Fortescue Hive, the expanded, purpose-built Integrated Operations Centre in Perth was opened in 2020 and includes our Planning, Operations and Mine Control teams, together with Port, Rail, Shipping and Marketing teams.

The Hive allows team members across our value chain to work together 24 hours a day, seven days a week to deliver improved safety, reliability, efficiency and commercial outcomes. In FY22, the Hive evolved to accommodate our Eliwana Plant and Mine Control teams and the newly formed Energy Operations team, enabling generation and the integrated distribution network for PEC to be remotely managed from Perth.

Energy infrastructure

Since October 2019, together with our partners, we have invested more than US$800 million in significant energy infrastructure projects that will increase our use of renewable energy, a key contributor to our pathway to achieve our emissions reduction targets.

PEC, together with the Chichester Solar Gas Hybrid Project, will deliver 25 per cent of our stationary energy requirements from solar power. PEC leverages existing assets and provides us with a hybrid solar gas energy solution that enables the delivery of stable, low-cost power and supports the incorporation of additional large-scale renewable energy in the future.

At 30 June 2022, all 809 transmission poles for Stage 1 of PEC were complete, conductor strung and the line tested and ready for energisation. The new infrastructure builds on our previous energy initiatives, including construction of the Fortescue River Gas Pipeline and conversion of the Solomon Power Station from diesel to gas generation.

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