Fortescue buys Williams and announces "Infinity Train"

Fortescue has announced that it has completed the acquisition of UK-based Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE), in a move that it expects will create hundreds of new jobs and facilitate hundreds of millions of dollars in decarbonisation initiatives in the years ahead. Williams Advanced Engineering Limited is a world-leading technology and engineering business, born out of Williams F1 in 2010.

WAE will remain a strongly independent company to accelerate its growth, while its battery technology division will be closely coordinated with Fortescue. Both will be managed by Fortescue’s green energy, technology and development company Fortescue Future Industries (FFI).

To mark the purchase at the Oxfordshire site, WAE and Fortescue announced what they say is the world-first, zero-emissions “Infinity Train”. The regenerating battery electric iron ore train project will use gravitational energy to recharge its battery electric systems without any additional charging requirements for the return trip to reload.

“The Infinity Train will not only accelerate Fortescue’s race to reach net zero emissions by 2030, but also lower our operating costs, create maintenance efficiencies and productivity opportunities,” said Fortescue Founder and Chairman, Andrew Forrest. “The Infinity Train will join Fortescue’s green fleet and will contribute to Fortescue becoming a major player in the growing global market for green industrial transport equipment, providing great value for our shareholders.

“The Infinity Train continues FFI’s inexorable march to change the world’s attitude to energy generation, to move business leaders and politicians globally to the realisation that fossil fuel is just one source of energy and there are others rapidly emerging, which are more efficient, lower cost and green,” Forrest added. “The world must, and clearly can, move on from its highly polluting, deadly if not stopped epoch.”

The technology, to be jointly developed by Fortescue and WAE, will address the reduction in emissions in the hard-to-abate heavy industry sector with significant opportunities for this technology to be commercialised on a global basis.

“The acquisition of WAE is an important step in Fortescue’s transition to a global green energy and resources company,” said Fortescue Chief Executive Officer, Elizabeth Gaines. “We are rapidly establishing the building blocks which will allow us to fully integrate technologies, manufacturing capabilities and green energy generation and distribution to deliver across the entire value chain. The Infinity Train is an important project to be developed together with WAE, as we work to deliver on our target to decarbonise our mining operations by 2030.

“The Infinity Train has the capacity to be the world’s most efficient battery electric locomotive. The regeneration of electricity on the downhill loaded sections will remove the need for the installation of renewable energy generation and recharging infrastructure, making it a capital efficient solution for eliminating diesel and emissions from our rail operations.”