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The head of a major Australian mining company will resign after the company’s destruction of two sacred Aboriginal sites.
Rio Tinto CEO Jean-Sebastien Jacques will leave the Anglo-Australian mining giant in March to destroy the 46,000-year-old caves to access iron ore.
Jacques last month apologized in an Australian Senate investigation into the destruction of the caves in May, saying there was no doubt the company could have made better decisions.
Jean-Sebastien Jacques to leave the Anglo-Australian mining giant no later than March
The explosions, which gave Rio access to £ 75 million (A $ 132 million) of high-grade iron ore, drew international condemnation and damaged the miner’s reputation for dealing with indigenous groups in its global operations.
The rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia had shown evidence of continuous human presence dating back 46,000 years.
The site was destroyed against the wishes of the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) peoples, the traditional owners.
In a statement, Rio Tinto said interested parties had expressed concerns “about executive responsibility for the failures.”
The board said Jacques will remain as CEO until March or until a successor is appointed, and the search for a new CEO is underway.
Iron ore chief Chris Salisbury and Simone Niven, head of corporate relations, the unit responsible for dealing with indigenous communities, will also leave.
In August a Internal review financially sanctioned all three, but did not ask that they be fired.
Mr Jacques lost payments totaling £ 2.7 million, while Mr Salisbury and Mr Niven were hit by £ 600,000 and £ 525,000.
The high-profile exits come amid increased sensitivity in Australia to its treatment of Aboriginal people, who are overrepresented in the country’s prisons and suffer from poorer health and shorter-than-average life expectancies.
Brynn O’Brien, executive director of the Australasian Center for Corporate Responsibility activist investor, said the executive changes “should be a wake-up call for the Australian iron ore industry and mining companies around the world.”
The people of Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) said they had no comment on the executive changes, but that they would continue to work with Rio Tinto.
“We cannot and will not allow this kind of devastation to happen again,” the PKKP said in a statement.
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Australia’s largest pension fund, AustralianSuper, said it was satisfied that Rio Tinto executives had taken “appropriate responsibility”, but added that nothing could undo the destruction of culturally important sites.
Western Australian state laws that approved the destruction are also being reviewed.
Representing the traditional owners, the National Council of Native Titles (NNTC) welcomed the measure, but called for further reform of the law.
“Traditional owners are not against economic development. They just want to be able to protect their most important cultural heritage sites.”
