Rocked to the core: Mining giants confront an ancient, incalculable risk

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The failure of mining companies to demonstrate robust processes for engaging with traditional owners could have consequences that go far beyond a hit to their reputation.

Like many mining executives, Jean-Sebastien Jacques has been trying to "change the barbecue conversation". Eager to promote mining’s contribution to human progress and prosperity, yet knowing full well that perceptions of greed and environmental damage loom large in the public’s mind, sometimes this can seem like a losing fight.

Some difficult questions are now being asked. Do the land’s traditional owners have enough protections? And should there be instances in which significant sites must be permanently protected, no matter the amount of compensation offered?Rio Tinto institutional shareholder As far as the law is concerned, however, WA legislation gives no right of review to landowners after a decision has been reached, and no state or Commonwealth acts offer traditional owners the ability to veto projects that would harm significant artefacts or sites.

The mining giant led investigations in 2014 which revealed the site to be more significant than first thought, and then collaborated with the traditional owners - the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation - to retrieve key artefacts so that they could be preserved. What happened at Juukan Gorge and the adequacy of the frameworks that failed to protect the site are set to be reviewed under a parliamentary inquiry to be headed by Liberal MP Warren Entsch, which will recommend legislative changes required to prevent this happening again.

In the weeks that followed the Juukan Gorge disaster, a groundswell of concern about threats to Indigenous sites has been spreading across the Pilbara, and then across the country. Australia’s top miner, BHP, put on hold plans to destroy dozens of Aboriginal sites as part of its South Flank iron ore mine.

As well, the investment company says, the timing of the gorge’s destruction coinciding with the Black Lives Matter movement sweeping the world has "amplified" wider concerns surrounding inequality."The intersection with the global Black Lives Matter movement means there is a lot of extra scrutiny because of this inequality conversation," Welsh-Rose says.

Similar to the aftermath of Australia’s banking royal commission, social issues often such as these end up being prosecuted through tougher regulatory reforms and much higher cost of compliance, says Whitton.

 

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Mr Jacques misses the point entirely. The trouble isn't perception but performance. There is still a pervasive attitude that puts production and profits above all else. I have had ample first hand experience. Then again, it's his job to wear the sheep's garb & make this go away.

MarieCo92176893 And so it should.

Even the non-indigenous Britons, such as the Anglo-Saxons, Asians, Normans, and Polish, of Britain respect the Traditonal Owners of Britain and their cultural places of significance like Stonehenge!

NOTHING is Going to Happen....NOTHING EVER DOES.....the FACT that the local Aboriginal people DID NOT EVEN KNOW the site had been Destroyed tells You EVERYTHING you need to Know.....if THEY don't give a Damn except for Whinging about MORE MONEY then that's what it is about....$$$

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