One of Australia’s oldest and largest investors is confident of better management at Rio Tinto after the Juukan Gorge scandal prompted a swathe of changes to the company’s executive and boardroom ranks.

The 93-year-old Australian Foundation Investment Company (AFIC) said it had been “quite active” in talking to the Rio chairman Simon Thompson and former chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques after the destruction of prized Indigenous cultural heritage at Juukan Gorge in May sparked an international controversy.