Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/PERTH: Rio Tinto Group, an Anglo-Australian multinational company that is the world’s second-largest metals and mining corporation, has said sorry after a radioactive capsule vanished in Western Australia earlier.
Mining giant issues statement
Rio Tinto said that it was collaborating with law enforcement to locate the radioactive capsule that disappeared in Western Australia.
A small amount of radioactive Caesium-137 is contained in the casing, and it could result in serious disease if it hitthe earth. It was lost between the cities of Perth and Newman, a distance of around 1,400.
In a statement, Simon Trott, chief executive officer of Rio Tinto’s Iron Ore, said that in addition to fully supporting the relevant authorities, his company has opened its own investigation to determine how the capsule was lost in transit.
As part of this investigation, he said they were collaborating closely with the contractor to determine exactly what went wrong in this case.
Mining company says capsule departed from Western Australia
According to the mining company, on January 12, the capsule departed from its Gudai-Darri mine in Western Australia. On January 25, it was reported missing.
Rio Tinto hired a third-party contractor with the necessary skills and accreditation to carefully package the device for transfer off-site prior to receipt at their Perth facility.
A Geiger counter was used to verify that the capsule was in the box before the device left the site.
An electrical tool for detecting and measuring radiation is called a Geiger counter.
A portion of Western Australia has received a radiation notice from state officials. The tiny silver capsule, which works as a sensor, has an 8mm length and a diameter of just 6mm (0.24 inches).
According to Western Australia’s chief health officer Andrew Robertson, exposure to trace amounts of the metal is equivalent to “getting 10 x-rays in an hour, just to put it in perspective, and… the amount of natural radiation we would receive in a year, simply by walking around.”
The state’s desert is desolate and one of the least populated areas in the country. Only one out of every five people in Western Australia reside outside of Perth, the state’s capital. However, o officials express concern that someone would pick up the capsule without knowing what it is.
This incident occurs as the corporation attempts to rehabilitate its reputation in Australia following a reaction to the destruction of sacred Aboriginal rock shelters in Western Australia.
