Rio Tinto tweaks plan for Western Range mine in first agreement with traditional owners since Juukan Gorge
Rio Tinto has made a series of changes to its Western Range mine plan after a year of talks with the Yinhawangka people.
Rio Tinto has made a series of changes to its proposed new Western Range mine after a year of talks with the Yinhawangka people of the Pilbara.
A management plan for the mine submitted to Western Australia’s environmental watchdog is a collaboration between the Yinhawangka Aboriginal Corporation and Rio Tinto, the first such agreement since the miner blew up the Juukan Gorge rock shelters in May 2020.
An archeologist working for the Yinhawangka people, Anna Fagan, told a Senate inquiry in 2020 the Western Range mine would destroy 124 sites.
However, according to a joint statement by Rio Tinto and the Yinhawangku traditional owners to be published Monday, the two parties have now “agreed on a new co-designed management plan to ensure the protection of significant social and cultural heritage values as part of Rio Tinto’s proposed development of the Western Range iron ore project”.
The Aboriginal corporation’s chief executive Kupa Teao said: “Together, we have ensured the expectations of the Yinhawangka people are clearly incorporated into the obligations moving forward.”
Rio Tinto said the Social, Cultural Heritage Management Plan was the result of strong collaboration over the past year with the Yinhawangka people including on-country visits, archeological and ethnographic surveys and workshops.
As a result of that collaboration, Rio Tinto said the mine was designed to reduce impacts on social and cultural heritage values.
The plan outlines protocols for joint decision making on environmental matters, mine planning and closure. It also outlines support for the Yinhawangka Ranger program and plans to increase participation in cultural heritage management activities.
Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Simon Trott said the Western Range plan provided a new framework for working in partnership on country and “we are appreciative of the Yinhawangka people for the opportunity to work together on this”.
“We have learned and continue to learn a lot from this co-designed process which is the manner in which we want to work with all Traditional Owners,” he said.
“By definition, a co-designed process involves detailed discussion, compromise and giving up some control. We accept that and that’s the journey we have been on with the Yinhawangka people.
"If you enter that genuinely you know there are going to be changes, but if you don't, then it's not really a co-design process."
The plan was lodged with the WA Environmental Protection Authority on February 1, almost 18 months since Rio Tinto chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques resigned “by mutual agreement” in the fallout from the loss of the rock shelters at Juukan Gorge. Two other senior executives were forced out as global furore grew over the decision to blow up the rock shelters. Items retrieved from the shelters before they were destroyed proved they had been occupied by Aboriginal people 46,000 years ago.