Rio Tinto’s miner dead four days before found

Australian miners and unions are outraged after hearing a Rio Tinto (ASX, LON:RIO) employee went missing for almost four days before he was found dead at a Western Australia mine camp.

According to The West Australian, the worker is believed to have died from natural causes in his room at the camp. However, local police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of the 54-year-old truck driver from Albany.

Australia’s FIFO drive-in, drive-out support group said the rising number of mine deaths that go unnoticed for days is concerning and it doesn’t know who is to blame for the delay in finding the man’s body.

Among the worst cases ever reported is the one of a worker at Woodside’s Pluto liquefied natural gas project, who died in Jan. 2011 and was not discovered for almost two weeks.

Image: Angry miners protest death of worker in 2011, by Channel Ten