Juukan Gorge: Aboriginal owners may refuse to work with Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto is facing further pressure from the traditional aboriginal owners of the Juukan Gorge complex after indigenous groups accused the mining company's chairman Simon Thompson of breaking a personal promise.

The mining giant has been facing mounting pressure both legally and professionally after it caused an explosion at the gorge - specifically, a 40,000-year-old cave system sacred to the local aboriginal population - as part of a mining operation in May 2020.

Read more: RMF: Rio Tinto's destruction of heritage site is "loss for humanity"

The resulting scandal caused Rio Tinto to let its former CEO Jean-Sébastien Jacques go and also spurred a parliamentary inquiry into the explosion which deemed the entire event to be "inexcusable."

The traditional owners of the rock caves, the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) people, learned the executive shuffles has taken place, breaking a promise that acting head of iron ore, Ivan Vella, would be seeing the deal through to the end.

The PKKP said they personally asked for Vella to work with them for the sake of "consistency and balance," which was given the full support of executives.

Tinto reported last week that Vella has moved to Canada to take over its aluminium business and CCO Simon Trott would take his place as acting head of iron ore.

The PKKP Corporation said: “We were thus shocked and surprised to hear via the media on Thursday morning that Mr Vella is being transferred to Montreal and Mr Trott will fill the position of CEO Iron Ore, as two of a number of senior management changes,” in February 2 letter written by CEO Grant Wilson.

“Mr Thompson was unequivocal in his response; Ivan Vella was nominated as having full board imprimatur for repairing the relationship from a Rio Tinto perspective. This responsibility was to have lasted from that meeting through to the conclusion of the repair," it added.

Read more: Rio Tinto names finance chief as new CEO

The traditional owners added Tinto's frequent leadership shuffles may make it difficult to build a long-standing relationship with the mining giant.

It is likely the result of this blunder will be Thompson facing mounting pressure to stand down as the spotlight on his approach to social issues is causing Tinto to be portrayed in a continually negative light.

According to Reuters, a PKKP spokesman announced the corporation has been in contact with Rio Tinto recently to discuss the situation.

Tinto itself stated they were working hard to "rebuild trust" between both parties.

Rio Tinto has been involved in a spate of controversies all year owing to several issues with its business practices.

It is currently facing mounting pressure from the Mongolian government over a copper mine expansion that has run significantly over-budget and has surpassed its original deadline for completion.

Read more: Mongolia threatens to cease Rio Tinto copper mine expansion

They are also facing a class-action lawsuit over pollution caused by a disused goldmine in Bougainville, which was directly responsible for a local civil war, which ended with a referendum in 2019 resulting in the province leaving Papua New Guinea.

The investigation into Juukan Gorge also caused the Australian government to cease all mining operations that may threaten aboriginal lands.

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