Rio Tinto in full production after flooding losses

<p>Rio Tinto Coal Australia’s Hail Creek mine and Blair Athol mine were back to full production after heavy rain caused flooding in central Queensland, the company said today (Thursday, January 31).</p> <p>Its Kestrel mine was expected to reach full production within a week.</p> <p>Rio Tinto chief operating officer Darren Yeates said the Blair Athol and Hail Creek mines had been in full production since late last week.</p> <p>Effective wet weather preparation undertaken at Hail Creek mine at the end of 2007 had significantly mitigated the impact on production at the operation with only small stoppages incurred through the recent rains, Mr Yeates said.</p> <p>&#8220Railings continued without disruption through the flooding period, and Hail Creek mine is poised to take advantage of additional sales opportunities if port allocation becomes available.&#8221</p> <p>The Kestrel mine felt the biggest impacts of flooding, after main roads were cut, preventing workers from accessing the site.</p> <p>&#8220Fortunately, throughout the weather impacts, we had a team of volunteers who were flown in and kept the mine in good order and ready for production,&#8221 he said.</p> <p>Mr Yeates congratulated the mines’ workforce for their commitment to safety.</p> <p>&#8220We are also very proud of our people,&#8221 he said.</p> <p>&#8220Not only have they been working together as a tight-knit team at our mine sites, they have also volunteered with the State Emergency Service (SES) to assist the neighbouring communities to our mines in their recovery.&#8221</p> <p>SES workers were on standby as flood waters were expected to peak at Rockhampton today.</p> <p>The weather bureau has been expecting the Fitzroy River to peak at around 7.8 metres and it should remain high today and tomorrow before dropping by the weekend.</p> <br />