Blow up Aboriginal site: CEO has to vacate positions at Rio Tinto

There was great indignation when the mining company Rio Tinto razed a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal holy site. The profit-driven undertaking now has consequences. Three top managers are leaving the company, including the CEO.

The CEO of the mining company Rio Tinto, Jean-Sébastien Jacques, resigns over the destruction of a sacred burial ground of the Australian aborigines. Two other high-ranking managers of the British-Australian company would also resign as a consequence of an internal investigation, the company said. The destruction of the 46,000 year old Aboriginal site had sparked a storm of public outrage.

The graves in the Juukan Gorge were blown up by the company in May to expand iron ore mining in the region. The site is one of the oldest settlement areas on the continent. Because of their destruction, the retiring managers had their bonuses cut earlier. Jacques has to forego the equivalent of three million euros, the manager responsible for the iron ore department Chris Salisbury to around 670,000 euros and the communications manager Simone Nien to 582,000 euros.

The demolition of the site was "wrong", said Rio Tinto Board Chairman Simon Thompson. The company wants to prevent the destruction of a site of "such exceptional archaeological and cultural importance" from its operations ever repeating itself. According to the information, Jacques will remain in office until a successor is found – or by March at the latest. The other two managers will leave the group at the end of the year, as Thompson announced.

28,000 year old bone tool found

An internal investigation at the end of August had shown that although Rio Tinto had obtained the necessary permission to blast the building, the blast itself did not meet the Group's "standards and internal guidelines". There is no such thing as "the one cause or the one error"; instead, "a series of decisions, acts and omissions over a long period" led to the demolition. Thompson then stated that there had been "numerous missed opportunities in nearly a decade"; the group did not respect "communities and their heritage".

Rio Tinto had initially defended the demolition, arguing that it had been approved by the responsible state. Aboriginal representatives protested that they had not been informed in time to prevent the demolition. Rio Tinto apologized.

An excavation in Juukan Gorge found the oldest known bone tool in Australia, a 28,000-year-old kangaroo bone and a belt made of hair. The state of Western Australia is currently reviewing its guidelines for mining near Aboriginal sites.