Rio relocates 700 miners with ‘specialist skills’ to Western Australia

Mining major Rio Tinto has relocated more than 700 of its staff with "specialist skills" to Perth from interstate as the Western Australian government put in place a hard border.

Premier Mark McGowan last week announced that while interstate fly-in, fly-out workers would be allowed into the state, they would be subjected to a strict 14-day self-isolation measure before being allowed onto Western Australian mine sites. Rio on Monday also noted that more than 1 200 of its employees at two of its Pilbara sites commenced new rosters that had been redesigned to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.