Australian mining giant Rio Tinto apologized yesterday for the loss of a tiny radioactive capsule while it was being transported to the west of the country. Although the region, with Perth as its capital, is extremely sparsely populated and largely deserted, it was deemed necessary to find and restore the capsule.

The country’s authorities launched searches with radioactivity detectors along the 1,400-kilometer route where the company lost the object. The capsule containing the chemical element caesium-137 is 6 mm long and 8 mm wide and is part of a radioactivity density measuring instrument common in the mining industry. “Perhaps due to vibrations, he broke away from the device and ended up on the sidewalk, falling into a crack,” the company said in a statement.

The device was transported by a subcontractor who picked it up from the mine on January 12 to be delivered to a warehouse in the northeastern suburbs of Perth. When it was unpacked for inspection on January 25, the device was dismantled and the radioactive capsule was missing. One of the four mounting bolts and screws was also missing.

Although the route is huge, authorities say the chances of finding the capsule are “very good”. Business, on the other hand, is not so optimistic. She is conducting her own independent investigation, but believes the pod most likely flew off the road or “stuck in a passing car’s tire” as it could have been lost more than two weeks ago.

Searching 1,400 kilometers in Australia, Rio Tinto miner apologizes for losing object en route.

Dangerous for humans

Contact of the capsule with the human body may cause skin diseases and burns. The authorities fear that because of the high publicity of this case, it is possible that whoever finds it will keep it as a souvenir, and for this reason they are trying to inform the public that long-term exposure to the material, no matter how small nor was its amount , can cause cancer.

The incident comes as Rio Tinto is trying to rebuild its reputation in Australia after it faced backlash over the destruction of ancient sacred Aboriginal rocks in the country’s west.

In 2020, Rio Tinto blew up 46,000-year-old rock shelters in Jukham Gorge to expand an iron ore mine, sparking an outcry that led to the resignation of several of the company’s top executives.