Rio in pledge to protect cultural heritage sites
But miner faces battle to rebuild reputation after Juukan backlash
RIO Tinto has unveiled a series of policies to protect cultural heritage sites as it battles to rebuild its reputation after destroying a sacred site last year.
The FTSE 100 miner provoked a worldwide backlash when it blew up two 46,000year- old caves in the Juukan Gorge in Australia, landing it the nickname ‘Rio TNT’.
To prevent anything similar happening, it has pledged to set up an indigenous advisory group that will work with managers and could report to the board.
In a transparency drive it will publicly say how it is implementing recommendations from two reports into the disaster.
And it will also stop using confidentiality contracts in negotiations with local leaders.
But indigenous groups slammed the strategy for lacking in detail and coming across ‘as another big company marketing document’.
Rio boss Jakob Stausholm said the approach to protecting sites has to be ‘felt in the hearts and the minds’ of staff. He said. ‘We must focus on real engagement with our communities, understanding their felt experience and never forgetting that, ultimately, we are guests on their land.’
Rio blew up the shelters to expand a sprawling iron ore mine. This was legal under Western Australian law but it has been heavily criticised for ignoring advice from anthropological experts about the significance of the site – and for bungling its response to the disaster. The outrage triggered a parliamentary inquiry and led to a clear- out of three board executives, including then chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques.
Chairman Simon Thompson announced he would step down last month, possibly as a way of avoiding a shareholder revolt at the upcoming annual meeting.
Despite the upheaval last year, soaring iron ore prices boosted profits by 40pc to £11.1bn and the Anglo-Australian miner promised to pay its biggest dividend, worth £6.5bn, or 400p per share. Yesterday, Rio said it would ‘review and redefine what is best practice for cultural heritage management’.
It will work with its indigenous advisory group and other unspecified parties to identify the gaps in its policies. Investors welcomed the move, including the Australian pension fund giant Hesta, whose boss Debby Blakey said the steps would ‘support broader improvements’ in the industry.
But other Aboriginal groups were less convinced and said Rio had failed to lay out detailed plans. Tony Bevan, a director at Wintawari Guruma Aboriginal Corporation (WGAC), which has an agreement with Rio, said the pledges ‘came across as another big company marketing document’. He said: ‘WGAC is yet to see any evidence of a strengthened and improved approach to cultural heritage management.
‘We have no visibility on the significantly strengthened internal practices, policies and governance that is referred to.’
The head of the National Native Council, Jamie Lowe, said the advisory group must have responsibilities and powers. He said: ‘You can have an advisory body that may sit at a high level but the relationships with the traditional owners are vital because that’s literally where the work happens.
‘And you have seen from the Juukan Gorge inquiry that those relationships either weren’t there or weren’t respected.
‘So they will be talking some flash language and having deadly plans about what it will look like, but what it will look like will depend on the personnel.’