THE fallout for Rio Tinto following the destruction last year of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters in Western Australia shows no sign of slowing.
Hot on the heels of chairman Simon Thompson’s resignation announcement, a lawyer working for activist investor, the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, said in a Reuters article that more heads should roll.
“Other Rio Tinto directors who enabled the unhappy regime of the past few years, or who have made excuses for it, are encouraged to reflect on whether their continuing presence on the board is truly in the interest of the company and its shareholders,” James Fitzgerald was quoted by Reuters to have said.
Thompson will step down after next year’s annual general meetings, while non-executive director Michael L’Estrange, who led the review into the company’s handling of the incident, will retire in May. “I am ultimately accountable for the failings that led to this tragic event,” Thompson said in a statement.
Reuters said that National Native Title Council CEO, Jamie Lowe, welcomed the latest departures at Rio and said there was a dire need for a senior leadership position within the company to be held by an Indigenous person
He also said it was paramount that there also be significant law reform in Western Australia, which had approved the blasts. “Without this, it doesn’t matter how many leadership changes we see within the mining sector. To adequately manage and protect our cultural heritage, the buck stops with government,” he said.
Two senior executives, who were in charge of the iron ore division and corporate relations, the unit responsible for dealing with Indigenous communities, also left last year.
Rio invited further outrage last month when it revealed that Jacques and the two senior executives had all finished 2020 with substantial payouts. Jacques received total remuneration of £13.3m ($18.6m) under Australian accounting rules, up from £7.1m pounds a year earlier.
