“Tens of thousands of years of cultural significance get blown up and all that goes to show for it is $7m of lost remuneration,” Fitzgerald said. Two photos from the PKKP Aboriginal Corporation show Juukan Gorge, one of the earliest known sites occupied by Aboriginal Australians, taken on 2 June, 2013 and 15 May, 2020 before the Rio Tinto blast. In 2012, when Rio Tinto was finalising the design of its mine pit, its heritage team requested that a buffer zone be placed around Juukan Gorge. Rio Tinto will establish a new social performance role, which will oversee “key group-level risks” including cultural heritage risks. It will also require that regular audits of cultural heritage be conducted and reported to board level.

Source: The Guardian August 24, 2020 04:49 UTC