The Responsible Mining Foundation (RMF) has described the destruction last month by Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto of a 46,000-year-old site in Australia's Juukan Gorge as "a loss for humanity as a whole", and "another wake-up call" for mining companies to show respect for cultural heritage.
The RMF's Responsible Mining Index 2020 found that many mining companies had failed to commit to leave World Heritage Sites unmined and to respect other protected areas.
The report also called on the governments of countries with large mining sectors, such as Australia, to do more for the protection of the historical patrimony of its indigenous peoples.
While the site was not a UNESCO-designated World Heritage site, the RMF said that Rio Tinto's actions were part of a much larger problem within the mining industry.
Hélène Piaget, CEO of the Responsible Mining Foundation said: "Mining companies will gain respect where they broaden their approach to responsible mining beyond a narrow view of risk to the business and beyond what is ‘legal compliance’ in a particular context. As a member of society, companies share our collective responsibility to future generations to protect all environmental and cultural heritage, as ‘our’ heritage."
While the RMF described the subsequent commitment by Rio Tinto to undertake a comprehensive review of its approach to heritage as "welcome", it called on the company to make a full commitment to not explore or mine in World Heritage Sites, and to respect designated areas of cultural or natural heritage.
The report produced by RMF found that, so far, only ten out of the 38 mining companies have made such full, public commitments.
Responsible Mining Index 2020
The RMF said that the destruction of Juukan Gorge, as well as several other recent cases, had highlighted the weaknesses in heritage legislation in countries across the world. These weaknesses were giving the green light to mining firms to destroy heritage sites, and often prevented indigenous groups from renegotiating their consent to the destruction.
The Juukan Gorge is one of the oldest sites of its kind in the region and the only site in Australia to show signs of continuous human occupation throughout the Ice Age.
The government in the federal state of Western Australia gave its consent under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 for Rio Tinto to damage the site for the purposes of expanding its iron ore mine in 2013.
The following year, an archaeological dig discovered that the site was twice as old as previously believed and uncovered more than 7,000 cultural artefacts, including sacred objects.
DNA testing carried out on a 4,000-year-old length of plaited human hair found that it was woven from the hair of several different people who were direct ancestors of today's Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people.
However, the Act under which the state government had given its consent does not contain provisions for mining consent to be withdrawn or renegotiated on the basis of new information.
The cave in the Juukan Gorge, along with another Aboriginal sacred site, was blasted on 24 May.
Following widespread condemnation of the blasting, the mining giant made a public apology, saying that it would review plans for other sites in the region.
In a statement, Rio Tinto Iron Ore CEO Chris Salisbury said: “We are sorry for the distress we have caused.
“Our relationship with the PKKP (Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people) matters a lot to Rio Tinto, having worked together for many years.
“We will continue to work with the PKKP to learn from what has taken place and strengthen our partnership.
“As a matter of urgency, we are reviewing the plans of all other sites in the Juukan Gorge area.”
Rio Tinto had previously suggested that the PKKP had failed to make its concerns about the site's destruction clear.
Burchell Hayes, a spokesman for the group, labelled these claims as "outrageous" saying the company had been informed in October about the site's significance, and that Rio's response had been that there were no plans to extend the mine.
Hayes added that the information that was provided by Rio was often “at a level that is difficult for our elders to understand”.
Rio claimed that it had no record of the PKKP asking the company to cease mining activity at the site.
The apology was further undermined by an article published on Monday this week in the Australian Financial Review which claims to have heard a secret recording of a Rio Tinto staff meeting held by Iron Ore CEO Chris Salisbury. In the meeting, Salisbury had reportedly said that Rio was apologising for the distress caused, not for the destruction itself and that it was not an admission of any wrongdoing.
After describing the events that led to the site's destruction, Salisbury reportedly told the meeting: “That’s why we haven’t apologised for the event itself, per se, but apologised for the distress the event caused.”
He was also reported as telling the meeting that what happened was "quite galling to me as well, because we are recognised … as one of the leading resources companies in this field”.
The issue is neither new nor unique to Australia. In 2015, WWF estimated that globally almost one-third of all natural World Heritage Sites were under threat of oil, gas and mining exploration, and UNESCO has repeatedly warned about the adverse impacts of extractive activities in these globally important sites.
RMF describes the problem as being particularly acute in Africa where WWF estimated that nearly two-thirds of heritage sites were under threat.
For example, the granting of mining concessions in the official buffer zone of the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape in South Africa, a World Heritage Site since 2003, has been described as a threat to the already vulnerable site. Concessions were granted despite challenges from government departments dealing with cultural and environmental matters.
Examples of heritage lost to mining can be found on all continents and are not only limited to the heritage associated with Indigenous Peoples.
In March, coal miners in Serbia damaged Roman-era ships that had been preserved under the mud for centuries at the Kostolac mine, next to the ancient Roman city of Viminacium. This site has been on the UNESCO Tentative List to be considered for nomination as a World Heritage Site since 2015.
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