Rio Tinto’s chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques will lose $4.9 million in bonuses after the destruction of the 46,000-year-old culturally significant Juukan Gorge rock shelters in WA’s Pilbara.
A Rio Tinto board review into the loss of the ancient rock shelters has blamed flaws in systems, data sharing, Indigenous engagement and decision-making, after the caves were blasted to allow for an expansion of the Brockman 4 mine.
The company detonated explosives near the culturally significant rock shelters in May, destroying them in the process.
The cave sites were among the oldest in Australia with evidence of continuous human habitation going back 46,000 years.
The destruction was legal under the section 18 exemption to WA’s Aboriginal Heritage Act, which is currently being reformed.
It gave Rio Tinto access to an extra eight-million tonnes of high-grade iron ore, estimated at the time to be worth $135 million.
Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-24/rio-tinto-executives-lose-bonuses-over-juukan-gorge-destruction/12588516
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