Tuesday 11 August 2020

Mining


Rio Tinto’s chief executive is facing calls to resign after admitting he did not know the cultural significance of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal site before the mining group blew it up.
Australian MPs grilled Jean-Sébastien Jacques and other senior executives yesterday over a decision to destroy the Aboriginal rock shelters to access iron ore deposits valued at $135m. The lawmakers criticised their failure to recognise the cultural significance of the Juukan Gorge site and inability to immediately answer multiple questions at the inquiry.
The Anglo-Australian miner told the parliamentary committee its senior executives, including Mr Jacques, had not read a 2018 archaeological report that the company had commissioned. The study found the site was of the “highest archaeological significance in Australia”.



EDIT 11.9.20




EDIT 4.11.20 

Of course, we should not forget – as we previously posted here – that the parent company of Aggregate Industries also has form in damaging Aboriginal rock art, having been fined $280,000 in 2010. 
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