Rio Tinto expresses its gratitude to the Western Australia's Department of Fire and Emergency Services for coordinating the successful search effort to locate a missing capsule lost while in transit from the company's Gudai-Darri iron ore mine in the Pilbara, Western Australia.
Rio Tinto would also like to thank the specialist search crews from the Australian Defence Force, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, as well as all other support agencies, for their crucial role in the search and recovery efforts.
Rio Tinto Iron Ore Chief Executive Simon Trott said, "We are incredibly grateful for the hard work of everyone involved in finding the missing capsule.
"While the recovery of the capsule is a great testament to the skill and tenacity of the search team, the fact is it should never have been lost in the first place. I'd like to apologise to the wider community of Western Australia for the concern it has generated.
"We are taking this incident very seriously and are undertaking a full and thorough investigation into how it happened.
"This sort of incident is extremely rare in our industry, which is why we need to investigate it thoroughly and learn what we can to ensure it doesn't happen again. As part of our investigation, we will be assessing whether our processes and protocols, including the use of specialist contractors to package and transport radioactive materials, are appropriate."
Notes to editors
The device involved is an industrial gauge which is commonly used in the mining industry. In this instance it was being used at our Gudai-Darri mine site to measure iron ore feed in the crushing circuit of the fixed plant.
The capsule is small (6mm diameter, 8mm long), round and stainless steel, and forms part of a level sensor (gauge) that is used in some fixed plant assets.
The gauge, packed by a specialist radioactive materials handler, was collected by a transport contractor from the Gudai-Darri mine site on 12 January.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230201005476/en/
Contacts:
Please direct all enquiries to media.enquiries@riotinto.com
Media Relations, UK
Matthew Klar
M+ 44 7796 630 637
David Outhwaite
M +44 7787 597 493
Media Relations, Americas
Simon Letendre
M +514 796 4973
Malika Cherry
M +1 418 592 7293
Media Relations, Australia
Matt Chambers
M +61 433 525 739
Jesse Riseborough
M +61 436 653 412
Investor Relations, UK
Menno Sanderse
M: +44 7825 195 178
David Ovington
M +44 7920 010 978
Clare Peever
M +44 7788 967 877
Investor Relations, Australia
Tom Gallop
M +61 439 353 948
Amar Jambaa
M +61 472 865 948
Rio Tinto plc
6 St James's Square
London SW1Y 4AD
United Kingdom
T +44 20 7781 2000
Registered in England
No. 719885
Rio Tinto Limited
Level 43, 120 Collins Street
Melbourne 3000
Australia
T +61 3 9283 3333
Registered in Australia
ABN 96 004 458 404
riotinto.com
Category: Pilbara
