Investegate |Rio Tinto Announcements | Rio Tinto: Final Results investegate.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from investegate.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Stories We Missed in 2020: Rio Tinto’s Destruction of the Juukan Gorge Proved (Again) Nothing Is Sacred Except Profit
Mining executives knew the spiritual value of the ancient Indigenous site – and they blew it up anyway
On 24 May 2020, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, the mining giant Rio Tinto blew up a 46,000-year-old sacred site: the Juukan Gorge rock shelters. The traditional owners of the land, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP), only learnt about the company’s intentions 11 days before the blast; they issued an urgent request to the Western Australian government to halt the destruction, but to no avail. Carol Meredith, the chief executive of PKKP Aboriginal Corporation has made clear that her people are ‘not anti-mining’ and have financially benefited from their relationship to mining companies. Yet, she explained to the ABC that their hands were tied: ‘If we were to proceed to seeking an emergency declaration, we were requi
By Reuters Staff
3 Min Read
(Reuters) - Mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd destroyed two ancient and sacred rock shelters in the Pilbara region of Western Australia as part of an iron ore mine expansion in late May.
The blasts, while legal, deeply distressed the traditional owners and led to a public outcry and a national inquiry, ultimately costing three top executives their jobs. They also increased investor pressure on the industry to address heritage management practices.
May 24: The world’s biggest iron ore miner destroys the rock shelters in Juukan Gorge, one of which showed evidence of continual human habitation dating back 46,000 years.
Rio Tinto Appoints Jakob Stausholm As CEO After Aboriginal Cave Blast Crisis
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Rio Tinto Plc (RTPPF.PK, RIO.L, RIO, RTNTF.PK) said Thursday that it has appointed Jakob Stausholm as chief executive officer, effective 1 January 2021.
The Anglo-Australian mining giant said that J-S Jacques will step down from his role as an executive director and chief executive of the company effective from 1 January 2021 and will leave the Group on 31 March 2021.
Stausholm joined Rio Tinto as an executive director and chief financial officer in 2018. Before joining to Rio Tinto, he was Group Chief Financial Officer and Strategy & Transformation Officer of A.P. Moeller - Maersk A/S.
Never Again. These words are used with boring, stage managed frequency by political and company figures who should know better. They title the interim report from the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia investigating the destruction of rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia by Rio Tinto. This act of spectacular cultural vandalism destroyed sites 46,000 years old. The company initially thought it was worth the bill: AU$135 million worth of iron ore.
The efforts of Rio Tinto were given that more punch as they took place on the eve of Reconciliation Week on May 24. They were approved through existing mining laws long shaped by wily developers and land users. The company had previously boasted of its rapport with the local indigenous peoples, including the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP). But a bleak picture emerged. PKKP concerns, according to the company s statement, did not arise through the engagements that have taken place over many years under the