Traditional owners question Rio Tinto’s goodwill after blasting of Juukan caves
Rio Tinto is set to be attacked again by traditional owners distressed over the destruction of Juukan caves.
Rio Tinto appears likely to cop another beating over its mismanagement of a tense relationship with traditional owners distressed by last month’s blasting of Juukan caves on Rio’s Brockman Four mine in the Pilbara.
The Australian has been told Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Chris Salisbury personally attended a visit to the cave site last Friday with a group of Puutu Kunti Kurrama elders, in a move to begin rebuilding Rio’s relationship with the custodian group.
Mr Salisbury inspected the damage at the Juukan site with five elders, who were able to confirm that two 46,000 year-old rock shelters had been destroyed. The onsite meeting was intended to initiate discussion over what the indigenous group wished to happen in future on “intact’’ country downstream of the caves.
Mr Salisbury told the group that the company was sorry for the distress it had caused in blasting the rock shelters.
But The Australian understands the PKKP will release a terse public statement as soon as today questioning the company’s goodwill, after a recorded conversation in a Rio Tinto staff meeting last week was made public by the Australian Financial Review on Monday.
In it, Mr Salisbury is heard saying that his public apology was for any distress caused, not an admission that the company had done wrong. “That’s why we haven’t apologised for the event itself, per se, but apologised for the distress the event caused,” he allegedly told staff.
He was also reported as saying that he had backing of political leaders and many stakeholders.
The PKKP is understood to be infuriated by the reported comments, which were made days before it met with the Rio boss and at a time when it is finalising a series of agreed forms of reparation with the company.
The Australian has also been told the PKKP has been contacted by Rio Tinto’s global chief Jean Sebastien Jacques since the staff conversation was disclosed publicly.
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