Rio Tinto Alcan Inc. : Bird-scarer trialled at Weipa Airport

06 January 2014

Bird-scarer trialled at Weipa Airport

Rio Tinto Alcan Weipa is trialling a bird-scarer at Weipa Airport.

The trial - which began last week (1 January) and runs for three months -involves a gas cannon used to fire blank shots to make a noise and scare birds away from the airstrip.

Rio Tinto Alcan Weipa specialist, Environment, Tim Ryan said the use of a gas cannon to prevent birds interfering with aircraft is bringing Weipa airport into line with standard practice at many domestic and international airports.

"The cannon will be used to scare the birds away from the airstrip during take-off and landing of aircraft. The gas cannon will be fired only when the birds are active in the area, so it is likely to be used most during the evening," Mr Ryan said.

The trial will see a series of short one-second blank shots fired into the air from the gas cannon. Shots will only be fired as needed, when birds may be in the area during.

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About Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto is a leading international mining group headquartered in the UK, combining Rio Tinto plc, a London and New York Stock Exchange listed company, and Rio Tinto Limited, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Rio Tinto's business is finding, mining, and processing mineral resources. Major products are aluminium, copper, diamonds, thermal and metallurgical coal, uranium, gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide and salt) and iron ore. Activities span the world and are strongly represented in Australia and North America with significant businesses in Asia, Europe, Africa and South America.

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Bird-scarer trialled at Weipa Airport [PDF: 103 KB]