NT:Mining giant fined $160,000 over spill

AAP General News (Australia)
12-08-2011
NT:Mining giant fined $160,000 over spill

By Xavier La Canna

DARWIN, Dec 8 AAP - A subsidiary of mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd has been fined $160,000
after admitting to a large fuel spill in the Northern Territory last year.

Alcan Gove Pty Ltd pleaded guilty in the Darwin Magistrates Court on Thursday to causing
serious environmental harm and was fined $160,000 by magistrate Michael Carey.

The company leaked 62,000 litres of unleaded petrol from a storage tank in June last
year in eastern Arnhem Land, where it runs the Gove alumina refinery.

The company was phasing out using the unleaded petrol, in favour of the "non-sniffable"

Opal fuel, and was trying to empty the tank to sell the fuel when the spill occurred.

The leak sparked fears petrol could discharge into Melville Bay via contaminated groundwater.

Gove's general manager of operations, Julio Costa, said the company was sorry the spill
had occurred and accepted responsibility for it.

It had spent $3 million to clean up the site and more rigorous inspection methods were
now in place, Mr Costa said in a statement.

The refinery would continue to monitor soil and groundwater and undertake more clean-ups
if required, he said.

A spokesman for the company said none of the fuel had been detected in Melville Bay.

The co-ordinator of the NT Environment Centre, Stuart Blanch, welcomed the fact that
the company had pleaded guilty to the charge and said it might be the largest pollution
fine ever meted out in the territory.

But Dr Blanch said the fine was still inadequate to penalise a company as huge as Rio Tinto.

"It shows that our fines are not a sufficient financial disincentive to polluters,"

Dr Blanch said.

AAP xlc/mp

KEYWORD: RIO TINTO

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