‘Very serious’: Australian mining giant’s radioactive capsule ‘lost’

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – A radioactive capsule was lost during a transit in western Australia triggering a radiation alert across the region, mining giant Rio Tinto said, adding the issue was being taken “very seriously.”

Simon Trott, chief of Rio Tinto’s iron ore division, offered an apology over the “lost” silver capsule containing Caesium-137. The capsule can emit radiation equal to 10 x-rays per hour.

“We are taking this incident very seriously,” Trott said. “We recognize this is clearly very concerning and are sorry for the alarm it has caused in the western Australian community.”

“The radioactive capsule used in mining was lost during transport from north of Newman – a small town in the remote Kimberley region – to a storage facility in the northeast suburbs of Perth, a distance of 1,200 km (745 miles),” ABC News reported.

Founded in 1873, Rio Tinto Group, an Anglo-Australian multinational company, is the world's second-largest metals and mining corporation.

The transit process was carried out by a contractor hired by the company which informed the Rio on Jan. 25 that the incident happened a few weeks ago after it left the company’s Gudai-Darri mine site.

The mining giant has also launched an investigation into “how the loss occurred.”