Rio Tinto plc Sponsored ADR (RIO.US) resumes operations after a five-week shutdown at a port in Western Australia.

Rio Tinto plc Sponsored ADR group (RIO.US) announced on Monday that its facility on East Intercourse Island in the Pilbara region of Western Australia has resumed operation. The facility had been shut down for over five weeks due to flooding caused by a tropical cyclone. When Tropical Cyclone "Sean" brought record rainfall to parts of the Pilbara coastline, a train unloader at the port facility on East Intercourse Island was submerged by floodwaters. Rio Tinto plc Sponsored ADR stated that operations of the train unloader on East Intercourse Island resumed last week, and the first ship has been loaded. In its annual performance report, Rio Tinto plc Sponsored ADR had previously stated that due to the tropical cyclone hitting the west coast of Australia and disrupting transportation, they expected to lose 13 million metric tons of iron ore, but still maintained the expected shipment volume of iron ore from the Pilbara region at 323 million to 338 million tons. Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) analyst Kaan Peker said, "The scale of this shutdown suggests that they are unlikely to reach the midpoint of the expected shipment volume."