Magellan Metals has voluntarily delayed the resumption of lead shipments through the port of Fremantle after trains from its Wiluna mine deviated from the allowed route.
Magellan Metals has voluntarily delayed the resumption of lead shipments through the port of Fremantle after trains from its Wiluna mine deviated from the allowed route.
A ban on the company's lead shipments was only lifted recently after they were halted on December 31 when lead carbonate was detected in air samples taken outside double sealed bags in rail containers.
Western Australia's Office of the Environmental Protection Authority (OEPA) is investigating the latest breach in lead handling procedures by the company.
It involved trains carrying lead from the company's mine, 980km northeast of Perth, travelling via Kwinana in the city's south rather than straight to Fremantle, as agreed in an environmental management plan.
In a statement from Canada on Tuesday, Ivernia Inc, Magellan's parent company, said OEPA had advised the company that it had received information that trains had deviated.
It said Magellan had investigated and learned that its rail transport contractor had diverted 10 trains carrying 159 containers of lead carbonate along a 12km rail section between November 10, 2010, and January 4, 2011.
"The decision to divert some trains was made by the contractor without Magellan Metals approval or knowledge," the Ivernia statement said.
"The contractor has categorically assured Magellan Metals that no future trains will divert from the usual rail route."
It said shipments had been voluntarily stopped and Magellan was undertaking soil sampling for lead analysis and isotopic testing along the 12km route.
"There is no suggestion that any lead has escaped the sealed shipping containers, nor that there is any public health risk."
Transport Minister Troy Buswell said the government was waiting for further information from Magellan and its rail operator.
"Clearly it is a great concern to the government when the lead is not moving on the route that it has approved it to move on," Mr Buswell said.
"The movement of that lead via, as I understand it, the Kwinana route, is completely unacceptable.
"Magellan will have to explain why their rail operator took the lead on that route.
"It is Magellan's responsibility, Magellan is licensed by the government, it has a responsibility to ensure that lead is moved at all times in compliance with the conditions that are put on them."
Mr Buswell said testing was currently underway to determine if there had been any lead contamination over the route.
"I think we need to be a little careful to make sure that that is our first priority, that is public health, and let's wait to get those results before we make a decision," he said.
In 2007, Magellan Metals was barred from shipping lead out of the southern WA city of Esperance after extensive lead contamination there killed thousands of birds and boosted lead levels in the blood of children.
The WA opposition has called for lead shipments to be limited to solid ingots, while Fremantle's independent Greens' MP Adele Carles wants a total ban on shipping lead through the port.
