Rio Tinto is investigating how a driverless train became involved in a derailment after departing from its Gudai-Darri operation in Western Australia.
The train was moving 20 wagons of iron ore in early September when one of the rear carriages derailed along the 166km rail line that connects the mine to Rio’s established rail and port infrastructure.
There were no reported injuries due to the autonomous operation of the train.
“Recovery of the site is complete and the line is now operational,” a Rio Tinto spokesperson said.
“The safety of our people and communities is our highest priority, and an investigation into how the derailment occurred is ongoing.”
This is the second derailment involving Rio Tinto’s fleet of trains in the past three months.
Investigators from the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR) went to the site of the derailment as part of a preliminary investigation.
“Any further investigation or regulatory action from ONRSR will be dependent on the actions taken by the operator in response to its own internal findings,” a spokesperson from the safety regulator said.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) will not examine the incident because the train’s emergency break was applied.
“After gathering further information, the ATSB opted not to conduct an investigation after being alerted to the derailment it said happened after an emergency braking application,” a spokesperson said.
Gudai-Darri, which opened in June, is Rio Tinto’s most technologically advanced iron ore mine in Australia.