But it is being opposed by one of the Native American tribes within the project area, the 17,000-member San Carlos Apache tribe, which fears the impact on sacred and actively utilised religious land at Oak Flat, known as Chi’chil Bildagoteel.
Following a board-led review into the circumstances of the Juukan Gorge disaster, Rio established a new “social performance” team to strengthen the miner’s oversight of community engagement and heritage practices and regularly review its performance. “This aims to ensure that communities and heritage issues are managed with the same rigour and discipline as applies to health, safety and the environment,” Rio said.
Although the Juukan Gorge blast was legally sanctioned, it went against the wishes of the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura traditional owners, who said they were not made aware of Rio’s plan to proceed with the blast until it was too late to call it off. Rio has apologised and acknowledged multiple failures in its communication with the PKKP that could have prevented the debacle.