BHP moves to protect heritage sites in Pilbara
BHP has already changed its plans to protect 10 of the 40 Aboriginal heritage sites as it reviews its Pilbara iron ore operations.
BHP has already changed its plans to protect ten of the 40 Aboriginal heritage sites it has received approval to destroy as it reviews its Pilbara iron ore operations in light of Rio Tinto’s Juukan Gorge debacle.
The mining giant revealed its amended plans as it was grilled by a parliamentary inquiry into the Juukan Gorge incident. The ongoing fallout from the destruction of the Juukan Gorge caves last week prompted the resignation of Rio Tinto chief executive JS Jacques and two of his most senior executives.
Rio Tinto had legal approval to blast the Juukan Gorge caves — where artefacts dating back 46,000 years had been recovered — under Western Australia’s contentious Section 18 legislation. Just days after the Juukan Gorge blast drew near-universal outrage, BHP used the same Section 18 mechanism to secure approvals to destroy 40 Aboriginal heritage sites at its $US3.4bn ($4.7bn) South Flank mine under construction in the Pilbara.
Appearing before the committee on Thursday, BHP’s President Minerals Australia Edgar Basto said the company was engaging with the traditional owners at South Flank, the Banjima Native Title Aboriginal Corporation.
“What I’ve seen so far is good progress in those conversations, and we are determined to work with the Banjima,” Mr Basto said, noting that the mine planning team at the project had already identified ways to avoid impacting 10 of those 40 sites.
BHP said it had looked at changing haul road routes and pit designs in order to protect some of those sites.
The company has also established a heritage council with the Banjima that will advise on heritage issues at South Flank.
BHP’s WA heritage manager David Bunting told the inquiry that the miner had an established process of consultation with traditional owners around its section 18 approvals.
“In the past, we did consultation before the section 18 was lodged, and then we consulted about mitigation plans after. We will continue to do that,” he said.
He also revealed that the company had only “impacted” around half the sites it had been approved to destroy under decades of applications through the section 18 legislation.
WA’s Aboriginal Heritage Act is being overhauled by the state’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt in light of the Juukan Gorge controversy, with the mining industry broadly supportive of Mr Wyatt’s plan to give additional rights to Indigenous groups.
Mr Basto said he believed the strong connections between the mining company’s heritage and mine planning teams would reduce the risks of it repeating the mistakes of Rio Tinto at Juukan Gorge.
“I do have under my watch, directly, the heritage team and, of course, the planning team.
“That ensures … that the heritage team gets a certain level of independence to talk to the mine planning team if they are not happy about what they are seeing, or if there is any issue that they need to address.”
Rio Tinto’s own internal review into Juukan Gorge identified shortcomings in the oversight of its communities and heritages practices, with the company subsequently deciding to establish a function to review the performance of its communities and heritage teams.
Mr Basto said the miner would often carve areas out of its Pilbara mine plans to protect heritage sites, citing the example of an area at its Mining Area C mine where 11 million tonnes of high-grade ore has been left in the ground to protect a significant site.
The miner this week confirmed it would release all its traditional owner partners from any gag orders restricting them from speaking out on cultural heritage matters and promising not to disturb any site where new heritage information comes to light.
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